


Seize the Day

by Haikyuufan



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Epilepsy, Female Pronouns for Pidge after chapter 1, Gen, Lance's POV, Male Pronouns for Pidge in chapter 1, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2018-10-11 07:03:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10458270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haikyuufan/pseuds/Haikyuufan
Summary: Being a Paladin of Voltron is hard enough on its own. But when you throw epilepsy into the mix, things are going to get a whole lot harder.  Lance now has to learn to pilot a robotic lion, kick Galra butt and manage his medication all at the same time. This should be fun.





	1. So Not Prepared For This

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first fic in the Voltron fandom. Today is Epilepsy Awareness day so I thought this would be a good day to post chapter 1 of this fic. The medical side of this fic is loosely based on my own experience with my epilepsy. I hope you guys enjoy this!

**CHAPTER 1**

“Hey Hunk, what do you say we grab Pidge and bust out of here for a bit tonight? Go to a bar and impress the  _ ladies _ ?” Lance asked, sitting up in bed and glancing over at his roommate. After today’s disaster in the simulator, Lance just needed to get out and  _ do _ something. 

 

“I dunno buddy… Oh! I know! Why don’t we grab Pidge, and stay here! Have a game night or something? Yeah, yeah, I like that idea better.” 

 

Lance sighed.“Come  _ on _ ! We haven’t done anything exciting in like, weeks! We won’t be out too late anyway. I   _ promise _ .” 

 

“I dunno...What if we get stuck in town for some reason? We’ll get in  _ so _ much trouble. And well, you’d be in even  _ bigger _ trouble than I would.” Hunk fidgeted, wringing his hands, and refusing to look Lance directly in the eye.

 

“Look, If it makes you feel any better, I’ll bring my bag with me. Okay? That way if we  _ do _ get stuck, I’ll be prepared, okay?” Lance laid back with his arms behind his head and his legs crossed.

 

Hunk sighed and shook his head.“Fine, fine, I’ll go. But if we get in trouble, I’m blaming you.”

 

“That’s the spirit buddy!” Lance cheered, jumping up out of his bed, throwing his new jar of meds into his backpack and stuffing some sweatshirts around it so the sound of a jostling jar wouldn’t give them away and then dashing out of the room.

 

“Wait, where are you going?” Hunk called. “It’s not even curfew yet!”

 

“That’s why it’s perfect! They’ll never suspect it!” Lance called over his shoulder. Hunk just gave a long suffering sigh before his shoulders slumped and he followed his friend out of the room.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took a lot longer to find Pidge than they expected. He wasn’t in the commissary , the bathrooms, the library, or any of his usual study spots.He wasn’t in the courtyard, and none of his other friends had seen him in a while either.  Before long, they actually wound up having to sneak around. “Why don’t we just turn back? I don’t think we’ll find Pidge anytime soon, and it’s getting late. I don’t want to be out until midnight again,” Hunk suggested. 

 

“Come  _ on _ , we at least have to find Pidge tonight. I mean I still think we should go  _ out _ tonight, but I mean, at least if we find Pidge we can bug him until he agrees to join us tomorrow night,” Lance turned around to face Hunk. He kept walking backwards with his arms behind his head. “Besides, you heard Iverson, we need to bond as a team. This is perfect team bonding!” 

 

Hunk was about to complain when he saw Pidge sneaking out of his dorm. “Oh thank God,” he breathed out, his whole body going slack with relief. “It’s almost over.”

 

“Oh no it’s not,” Lance told Hunk following Pidge at a distance, still ducking behind walls like he was in one of those old spy movies. “We’re going to figure out what Pidge is up to, and then we’re gonna drag him with us for a night out on the town! It’ll be fun.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance couldn’t believe what had happened to him today. He met his hero, ran into his rival again, escaped the soldiers at the garrison in a high speed chase, and now, he was standing in front of a giant blue robot lion. This was the craziest day of his life. 

 

“I wonder how we get through this,” Keith spoke up, examining the force field surrounding the lion. 

 

“Maybe you just have to knock,” Lance suggested, leaning in and knocking on the force field.  An image of the lion in front of him and 4 others like it forming into one giant robot flashed through Lance’s mind and he glanced around nervously at the others. “Uh, did everyone just see that?” Lance questioned, praying that they had and it wasn’t some new type of seizure. He sighed in relief when everyone else started freaking out too. 

 

Suddenly, the lion moved on its own, lowering its head to the ground and opening its mouth as if to invite them inside. Lance stared in shock before he ran in and took a spot in the pilot’s seat. The chair slid forward, and Lance was surrounded with holographic displays. He went wide-eyed as a strange sensation filled his head. He turned nervously to the others, who had all filed in at some point. “Did you guys just hear that?”

 

“Hear what?” Keith asked.

 

Lance hesitated. Maybe it was just in his head. Maybe it was some kind of weird new aura. But it felt completely different to anything he'd ever felt before. “I think it's talking to me.” Lance voiced his conclusion to the others. Hunk and Pidge exchanged concerned glances over his head. 

 

The feeling in his head overwhelmed him and he pushed some buttons, sending the robot into motion.  He wasn’t sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, he was piloting this robot with ease, despite never having flown anything like it before. On the other hand, he wasn’t really in control. And he did  _ not _ like that.

 

“Where are you going?!” Keith asked. 

 

“This thing is on autopilot!” Lance told him “It says there’s an alien ship approaching earth! I think we’re supposed to stop it!” Even the words he was saying didn’t feel entirely his own. 

 

“What did it say exactly?” Pidge questioned, sounding exasperated with Lance.

 

“Well it’s not like it’s saying  _ words _ , more like feeding  _ ideas _ into my  _ brain _ . Kind of,” Lance explained. Hunk and Pidge looked as uncomfortable with this description as Lance felt experiencing it. Good to know he wasn’t the only one who was trying not to freak out about this. 

After that, everything happened too quickly for Lance to really process, and next thing he knew, they had passed through a wormhole and were standing in front of an alien castle. 

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the princess and the weird guy with the mustache explained the whole Voltron situation to them , Lance wished he’d listened to Hunk earlier. “So… How long do you think this whole war thing is gonna take?” he asked, trying not to let his worry slip into his voice.

 

“Well, let’s see,” the alien man considered, counting on his fingers. “The Galra already have a 10,000 year head start, so… I suppose it will take a few years at least. It used to take quite a few years just to train the paladins of old, but we don’t exactly have that sort of time now.”

 

Lance’s heart sunk, and he could feel the blood drain from his face. Hunk and Pidge eyed him nervously. They’d obviously  reached the same conclusion he had. There was no way Lance’s current supply of meds was going to last until he got back to Earth. He shook off their worried looks though silently sending them a message that now was not the time to talk about it, and tuned back in to what the aliens were saying.

 

“Lance, you and Hunk will take the Blue Lion to this location,” the princess was saying, pointing to a spot on a star map. “There, you will look for the Yellow Lion.”  Lance nodded mutely in understanding, too wrapped up in his own head to make one of his usual boasts.

 

As they got settled in a prepared for the princess to send them  to their destination by wormhole, Hunk turned to Lance. “Are you gonna be okay buddy?”

 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine for a few months at least,” Lance swallowed hard while trying to shrug nonchalantly as the wormhole opened. “We’ll see what happens after that.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That night, once they’d all finally settled in, Pidge and Hunk cornered Lance in his room. 

“You have to tell the others, you know that, right?” Pidge asked, hands on his knees and leaning into Lance’s face.

“I  _ know _ ,” Lance groaned pushing him away. “But it can wait until morning.”

“Y’know, maybe if we tell Coran, he’ll be able to find something to replace your meds,” Hunk suggested, carefully hovering just outside Lance’s personal bubble, wringing his hands.

“I doubt it,” Lance flopped back onto his bed, trying to project the easy confidence his teammates were used to. “I mean have you seen the food here? Pretty sure that was all Coran. Besides, even if he  _ could _ find something similar, there’s no guarantee it would work.” 

“I mean, it couldn’t hurt to try,” Pidge pointed out.

“I  _ know _ ” Lance groaned. “But, look, I’ll tell them in the morning. Okay? One day isn’t gonna make much of a difference, and I just want to go to sleep right now.”

“Fine,” Pidge huffed turning to stomp out of the room. “But you  _ better _ tell them in the morning.” Hunk threw one last worried glance at Lance before quietly following Pidge. Lance promptly went through his nighttime routine, buried himself under the covers, and fell asleep.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance didn’t end up telling the others at breakfast the next day. But when Coran explained the maze, Lance froze up. “When you say  _ small _ shock, just how small are we talking here?” Lance asked through his helmet.

 

“Not a large one, just enough to pierce your armor and sting a bit,” Coran spoke cheerfully, though Lance wasn’t sure he trusted the Altean’s definition of “a bit”. 

 

“I  _ told _ you to tell them Lance,” Pidge spoke up, half taunting, half exasperated.

 

“It hasn’t even been a day Pidge! I didn’t think something like this would happen in a day!” Lance squawked.

 

“Lance, what aren’t you telling us?” Shiro asked in a voice that reminded Lance of his dad trying to figure out which of his siblings was in trouble this time. That voice had always worked too well on Lance.

 

“Look, can I join you guys up there first? I’d rather tell you guys face to face,” Lance replied, slumping in resignation.

 

“We’ll turn off the maze and join you down there,” Coran spoke. “Should I contact the princess and have her join us?”

 

“Probably,” Lance sighed. “I’d rather not explain this twice.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Lance started to fidget as they sat on the floor and waited for Allura to join them. He relaxed a bit when he felt Hunk place his hand on his shoulder and Pidge lean against his side. That didn’t make it easier for him to look anyone in the eye once Allura joined them though. Hunk gave his shoulder a squeeze and Pidge smiled up at him as he took a deep breath and started to explain. “Pidge and Hunk already know this, but I have epilepsy. It’s well controlled for now but I honestly don’t know how long that will last,” he admitted.

“What is this… ‘epilepsy’?” Allura asked tilting her head.

“All it means is that I’m more likely to have seizures than your typical person and that I’ll probably be fine afterwards,” Lance shrugged.

“That… does not explain much,” Allura admitted. 

Lance took another deep breath, trying to think of the best way to explain a seizure without making himself seem like a totally incompetent pilot. Pidge nudged him with her elbow, and he sighed, deciding to give the explanation he’d found online when he’d gone on one of his research sprees in middle school, although he wasn’t sure Allura and Coran would like that explanation very much.

“A seizure is… it’s an electrical storm in your brain pretty much,” Lance explained twirling one of his hands in the air listlessly. “For different people it can have different ways of showing itself,” he  started fidgeting with his hands. “My type are called tonic-clonic, and they’re one of the more dangerous, but more common and more recognizable, types. What happens is my whole body, well, seizes up, for lack of a better word,” here he held his hands rigidly in front of him as if to demonstrate what he meant,” and then after a while, my limbs and body will start to jerk,” he let his hands flop to his sides.“Afterwards I mostly just need rest and I’m back to normal.”

 

“How’d you convince the Garrison to let you in?” Keith asked after Lance had finished his explanation. Lance tensed at the question.

 

“What do you mean?” Allura asked tilting her head to the side.

 

“I mean it’s hard enough to get into the Garrison if you’re  _ healthy _ but when you have a condition that can put your ability to fly into question, it’d be close to impossible,” Keith explained.

 

“Y’know how you have to pass all those physical tests?” Lance asked Keith, having recovered a bit while Keith was explaining his question to Allura. Keith nodded. “I had to pass all of those with an EEG setup and had to hope it would come out normal.” Lance explained. “Any sign of seizure activity, even if nothing was actually triggered, and I wouldn’t be allowed into the Garrison.”

 

“Hunk and I did some extra training too,” Pidge chimed in, raising his hand like they were still at the Garrison. “Once we were assigned to Lance’s team, we had a protocol set in place in case of emergency,” he explained lowering his hand. “And were taught how to pilot the ship well enough to keep us all safe until Lance was coherent. We were tested after hours on our emergency protocol on occasion too.”

 

“I understand if you don’t want me on the team anymore,” Lance said, shrinking in on himself as the attention of the room turned back to him. “It’s one thing to pilot a ship when I have crew to help me if something goes wrong, but I could be a liability if something were to happen to me in battle before we could form Voltron, and I could put the entire team in danger if we had already formed Voltron.”

 

“Losing you as a Paladin is not an option Lance,” Allura told him seriously, fixing him with a stern look. “We’ll just have to work out our own emergency protocol for those situations.” 

 

“Besides,” Coran added, “The Blue Lion is perfectly capable of flying itself for short periods of time if its Paladin is in danger or unconscious. It’s one of the functions of the Lions.” 

 

“Is there anything we can do to help prevent a seizure?” Shiro asked, his posture relaxed, but his tone indicating he was fully aware of how serious the topic was.

 

“Not really,” Lance shrugged. “Just, let me sleep between missions  I guess? But most of my possible triggers go hand in hand with wars so they’re gonna be pretty hard to avoid.”  

 

“Coran may be able to help a bit though,” Hunk chimed in, turning to address the advisor. “Lance has his medication on him, but it won’t last as long as we need it to. If we could synthesize something to mimic it though, that would help a  _ ton _ .”

 

“I’ll do my best,” Coran said, puffing his chest out. “I will need a sample of his medication to work with though.” 

 

“That’s doable,” Lance said, nodding. “I have a 3-month supply with me. 1 pill won’t make much of a difference.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The next few days passed by smoothly, or as smoothly as they can when you’re fighting a space war Lance figured, but then everything blew up. Literally. One moment, Lance and Coran were having a bonding moment, and the next thing Lance remembered was stepping out of one of those weird thingies Allura and Coran had been in when they met to see the others having some sort of clock party.  When he voiced his confusion at this, Hunk shushed him for interrupting and then, after a second (or maybe a tick, which was apparently what the whole clock party was about?) he seemed to actually realize that Lance was awake, and immediately shoved his medication and a liquid packet into his hands. “You, uh… you should probably take that now that you’re awake,” Hunk informed him. 

 

“We  _ may _ not have been able to give you your meds for like, a week,” Pidge pushed up his glasses as he spoke to Lance, who was already complying with Hunk’s instructions.

 

“Did I have any seizures in the pod thingy?” Lance asked, turning to face the others, who had chosen to observe Lance from a little farther back.

 

“Not that we could tell,” Shiro informed him shaking his head. 

 

“Then give me a little bit for my meds to kick in, I should be completely fine in like 12 hours, a couple days at most. Assuming I didn’t take too big of a blow to the head of course,” Lance said casually. Everyone stared at him. “I  _ didn’t _ take too big of a blow to the head, right? I mean, I feel fine. I’ve got a little bit of an aura going on, but that’s probably from not taking my meds, right?” His heart jumped into his throat as he voiced his concerns.

 

Everyone looked at each other before Coran cleared his throat. “You did take  _ quite _ the blow to the head,” he admitted. “ _ But _ it seems that the healing pods have fixed it. We should keep a close eye on you though, just in case.”

 

“In the meantime though, you should eat something,” Allura told Lance. “We can fill you in on what happened while you’re eating.”

 

“Talking?, Eating? Are you asking me on a date?” Lance asked, putting as much of his usual bravado into it as he could, even though his mind was more focused on other things right now. It seemed to fool the others at least, because they all groaned, and Shiro even went so far as to comment.

 

“Classic Lance. He’ll be fine.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Wait, wait, wait, Pidge you’re a  _ girl _ ?! Man you’re such a hypocrite!” Lance flailed before pitching his voice higher “ ‘You have to tell the others you know that, right?’.” he mimicked,“ Well look who’s been keeping secrets now!” 

 

Pidge looked sheepish. “You’re right. But to be fair, me being a girl puts me in no more danger than I would have been in as a boy.  _ You  _ on the other hand could’ve gotten really hurt,” she crossed her arms and gave Lance a challenging look.

 

“You still should’ve told us before now,” Lance huffed, meeting her stare with one of his own. “ _ I _ had to tell people I knew for like, a day. You don’t get to tell us this kind of stuff after knowing me and Hunk for a full year and the others for like a week without any consequences.”

 

“When was I supposed to tell you at the Garrison?” Pidge threw her arms in the air. “There could’ve been hidden microphones for all we knew and then my cover would’ve been blown!” 

 

“Fine,” Lance sighed, softening. “Just don’t keep the big things secret anymore, okay?” 

 

“Sure thing Lance,” Pidge grinned at him. Despite himself, Lance grinned back. How could he possibly stay mad at that face?

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be more of this, I already have chapter 2 started, but updates will be sporadic. My goal is to hopefully follow Lance through the entirety of Voltron, but we'll see how that works out, as writing this from Lance's POV has presented more problems than I anticipated. 
> 
> Until next chapter, I figured I should explain a little bit of terminology that hasn't been described yet but has been mentioned.  
> Aura: A sensation that oftentimes prewarns of a seizure. In my experience, it is possible, and even somewhat common, for an aura to happen without a seizure occurring.  
> EEG: Short for electroencephalogram. They stick a bunch of electrodes on your head and measure your brainwaves and look for seizure-like activity in the presence of possible triggers
> 
> Also, a clarification on the whole medication thing: I do NOT know how accurate Lance's statement that he'd be fine in a day or two after not having taken his medication for a while would actually be. I do NOT recommend messing with your medication without doctor approval. My only personal experience with this is when I was attempting to come off of my medication, and while I was fine almost immediately, I am also a female whose seizures are closely tied with her menstrual cycle, which is clearly not the case for Lance in this fic. Do NOT take anything in this fic as a "one size fits all" medical guide to epilepsy. If you want to learn more about epilepsy, check out the Epilepsy Foundation website : http://www.epilepsy.com/


	2. Not a Fun Week

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. I've been busy with classes and exams, but I finally got this written and edited. Thanks for being patient. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 2**

Lance winced as his jaw spasmed again. This was like the tenth time since he got out of the pod and now his head felt all cloudy too. He supposed he should probably track down Hunk, so he reluctantly hauled himself of out his bed and started wandering the castle looking for him. He passed through quite a few hallways, some he recognized and some he didn’t until he collided with someone’s chest. He looked up only to find himself face to face with Shiro. 

 

“Oh… H-hey Shiro.” Lance said. He mentally cursed his aura. Now Shiro probably thought he was up to something he shouldn’t be. 

 

“ Hey Lance,” Shiro smiled down at him. “Where are you headed?”

 

“I was looking for…” Lance frowned. He knew who he was looking for. He was looking for his best friend, a big guy with an even bigger smile but right now he couldn't find the words. It was right there on the tip of his tongue but what was it?  “I'm looking for…” he started again, noticing Shiro frown in worry.  “Hunk!” He exclaimed, his brain finally supplying the word he was looking for. “I'm looking for Hunk,” he said a bit more calmly.

 

“Is everything ok?” Shiro asked, sounding skeptical, tilting his head to the side. 

 

“Yeah, I just don't really want to be alone right now,” Lance fidgeted sheepishly. “I'm still having a bit of an aura.”

 

“You mentioned that word earlier.”Shiro gave him a curious look. “What does it mean?” 

 

“It means...umm…” Lance cursed internally. It was difficult enough for him to explain an aura when he was feeling  _ good _ . But right now his brain didn't want to produce words, making the task a hundred times more difficult. “It means that … sometimes I get this feeling and umm… sometimes I feel like I'm gonna… like I'm gonna have a seizure…” Lance explained as best he could. 

 

“Do you need to go to the infirmary?” Shiro asked in concern. 

 

“Nah, I can usually...usually I can… I just need to be with Hunk.” Lance waved his hand around before slumping in defeat when he couldn’t  get his words out. 

 

“Ok,” Shiro nodded, but he still looked tense. “I'll help you find him. I'm assuming you already checked his room?” 

Lance face palmed. Of course he'd missed somewhere so obvious.

“I'm gonna take that as a no then,” Shiro said with a strained chuckle. “Let’s check there first then.” Shiro placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder and guided him back to the hallway where the paladins slept. He knocked on the door next to Lance’s, and Hunk answered.

 

“What’s up?” Hunk asked, glancing worriedly between Lance and Shiro. 

 

“Lance said he's not feeling well and that he wanted to be around you,” Shiro explained, squeezing Lance’s shoulder. “If you're busy though I’m sure I can handle things.”

 

“What kind of not feeling well?” Hunk asked Lance seriously. 

 

“Aura…” Lance mumbled, looking down at his feet. 

 

“Ok then,” Hunk heaved a large breath. “Come on, I’ll stay with you until it's gone,” he gestured for Lance to come inside. Lance walked in, and Shiro remained in the doorway with his arms loosely folded, refusing to look Hunk in the eye. “You wanna come in too Shiro? “

 

“Is that okay?” Shiro asked, switching to rubbing his arm. 

 

“Yeah, Lance won’t mind,” Hunk shrugged. “Right Lance?” he called over his shoulder. Lance shook his head slightly, not trusting himself to speak right now. 

 

“Ok then,” Shiro slowly stepped into the room, looking around as he entered. 

 

“So we’re probably just gonna play War or something until this passes,” Hunk told Shiro, gesturing for him to find a seat as  he rummaged through his desk for a deck of cards. 

 

“What if it doesn’t pass?” Shiro asked. 

 

“That’s why we’re here,” Hunk shrugged. “We take care of Lance. As long as he doesn’t go into status, he’ll be fine.”

 

“And if he does?” Shiro’s nervousness crept into his voice.

 

“Then we bring him to the infirmary, sedate him, and stick him in a pod,” Hunk tried to play it off but Lance could tell his friend was just as nervous about that outcome as Shiro was. “Normally I’m sure things would be more complicated, but that’s the best we can do out here. But I doubt he’ll go into status. He never has before.” 

 

Shiro obviously didn’t notice Hunk’s nerves, as his entire body sagged in relief at this. 

 

They played cards for about half an hour, with Shiro and Hunk shooting not-at-all subtle looks at Lance  before he felt his jaw clench. He tried to open his mouth but it felt like the right side of his mouth was cemented shut. As his vision grew dark, he managed to get a pitiful squawk out of his mouth before he blanked out completely.  

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Lance woke up, he saw Hunk peering down at him, with a worried Shiro hovering in the background.

 

“Hey buddy,” Hunk greeted him as he helped him sit up. “Do you know what just happened?” 

Lance nodded slowly, though his heart sunk as he did so. “I just had a seizure, didn’t I?” 

 

“Yeah, and do you know where you are?” Hunk asked. 

 

“Your room. On the castle ship,” Lance slurred. The fog in his head had cleared enough for him to be tempted to roll his eyes at the question, though he knew Hunk was just checking to make sure he was okay. 

 

“Right. Why don’t we get you onto the bed? It’s much more comfortable I promise,” Hunk lightly joked.

 

“Yeah sounds good,” Lance grinned slightly at him. Hunk hoisted him onto his feet and helped him walk the short distance to the bed. As Hunk got him settled, Shiro shuffled over.

 

“You okay Lance?” Shiro asked.

 

“Yeah, just give me a few hours, some sleep, and some painkillers, and I’ll be fine,” Lance waved him off. “But right now, it’s sleep time.”

 

“Wait a second Lance,” Hunk said. “You need to take your meds first. Then you can sleep.”

 

“Can I get some water too then?” Lance asked the dryness in his mouth finally hitting him. 

 

“Yeah, sure,” Hunk nodded,exiting the room and leaving him alone with Shiro.

 

Shiro shifted awkwardly for a bit without ever tearing his eyes away from Lance. “Dude, I’m fine.Stop acting like I’m gonna keel over and die any second.”

 

“Sorry, I just…” Shiro rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. 

 

“I get it, you’re worried,” Lance said. “I bet that was kind of freaky just now, but I promise I’m fine.”

 

“Yeah…” Shiro chuckled slightly. “I may have freaked out a little bit when Hunk asked me to time it.”

 

Lance chuckled weakly at that. “Yeah…we probably should’ve briefed you guys on all this a bit more by now. There just wasn’t much of a chance to with everything going on.”

 

“So… Hunk mentioned something called status before this happened? What’s that?”

 

“To make a long explanation short it’s when I can’t stop seizing,” Lance explained, his eyes drooping a bit.

 

“Here you go Lance,” Hunk reentered the room and gave Lance a liquid-pack and his medicine. 

 

“Thanks,” Lance quickly took the medication and drained the liquid pack.

 

“Try to get some sleep now,” Hunk instructed, taking the empty packet from Lance.

 

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Lance huffed out a small laugh, before closing his eyes and drifting off.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

 They were on their way to the Balmera to  save Hunk’s sentient-rock-friend when they got the distress signal. Lance groaned as alarms blared through the ship and he struggled to put his armor on. He winced as tried to join the others as quickly as possible. When he finally got there, Hunk and Shiro stared at him. 

 

“Absolutely not,” Shiro told him.

 

“What?” Lance asked. 

 

“You are absolutely not going on this mission.” Shiro told him.

 

“What?! Why not?!” Lance squawked, Looking over at Hunk pleadingly.

 

“I’m with Shiro on this one buddy,” Hunk shook his head. “You just had a seizure last night. You’re not going on this mission.”

 

“Wait, what?” Keith asked turning to stare at Lance

 

“But I’m fine!” Lance protested, ignoring Keith.

 

“I have four words for you. Galaxy. Garrison. Open. House,” Hunk said, counting off each word on his fingers. 

 

Lance winced. That had not been a fun day. Walking all over campus in dress shoes when he was already sore all over with nothing but some ibuprofen keeping him going was not his brightest idea. “Ok, I’ll give you that, but this is kind of important,” Lance pointed out.

 

“Actually, this distress signal is only looking for help repairing their ship,” Allura informed him. “I’m sure the other paladins can manage this on their own.”

 

“In all honesty, Keith and I going is more of a formality than anything, this is mainly a Pidge and Hunk mission,” Shiro said. 

 

“So what am I supposed to do while you all run off on this mission?” Lance whined. 

 

“Rest,” Shiro told him.

 

“But that’s so boring,” Lance pouted.

 

“Lance, I promise this won’t even be that exciting,” Hunk told him “In fact, you’ll probably be  _ more _ bored if you come with us.” 

 

“Fine,” Lance huffed, crossing his arms petulantly. “Leave me behind then, see if I care.”  

 

“We’ll be back before you know it buddy,” Hunk said, his eyes softening as he pulled Lance in for a hug before they left.  Lance relaxed into the hug. He couldn’t stay mad at Hunk for this. As much as he hated the situation, Lance knew Hunk was just looking out for him. 

 

As Lance watched his friends leave, he sighed and trudged back to his room. He climbed into his bed, and put his headphones on, letting the music from his phone lull him to sleep. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Lance groaned as he rolled out of bed a few hours later and staggered out to the common area. Apparently, his timing was a lot better than he thought it was, as this was when everyone else came back into the room. 

“I still can’t believe Beezer would betray me like that!” Pidge yelled, tossing her helmet on the floor. 

“I told you guys they were bad news,” Hunk pointed out as Shiro just shook his head fondly at them.

Lance looked over at Keith, silently begging for an explanation. 

“She’s just mad because the armless robot somehow managed to handcuff her to a tree and I had to save her,” he shrugged before walking over to the others, leaving Lance even more confused than before. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of the day went by very slowly for Lance. Shiro was hovering near him all day and Keith wouldn’t stop casting furtive glances at him. Pidge was no more than 5 feet away from him at all times, and Hunk kept on asking if he needed anything. A small part of him had been hoping that the chaos of the mission would’ve made the others forget about why he hadn’t gone with them, but apparently, that was too much to ask for. When  Hunk approached Lance for the umpteenth time in the past hour, opening his mouth as if he was going to say something, Lance snapped. 

 

“Yes Hunk! I’m fine! I’ve been fine the past 15 times you asked me, and I’m going to continue being fine! I don’t need any more painkillers right now, I’m not tired, and I’m sure I remembered to take my meds this morning! The only thing I need right now is for everyone to stop acting like I’m going to keel over any second!” Everyone just stared at Lance in shock. As he surveyed their faces, his own expression softened. “Look, I get you guys are worried, and I appreciate that, but I’m fine. Besides being sore still, I’m fine. The chances of me having another seizure right now are extremely low, I promise. I just need you guys to relax a little okay? Trust me to know how to take care of myself. Because I do. ” 

 

“We know that Lance,” Shiro told him, tone gentle. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t worry anyway. And it’s easier not to worry so much when we can see for ourselves that you’re okay.”

 

“Which I get. But the thing is, you guys aren’t calm at all. I mean, Pidge is looking at me every 5 seconds over her computer, you won’t stop staring, and Keith is looking like I’m going to die any second.”

 

“Sorry,” Pidge told Lance. “It’s just been a long day. And I’m a little on edge in general right now. So sorry if I’ve been making you uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Keith chimed in.

 

“It’s okay,” Lance sighed, his face softening as he looked at his teammates. “Just at least try to be a little more subtle though, okay?”

“Okay,” Pidge nodded. 

 

“You know what we should do?” Hunk offered. 

“What?” Lance asked as everyone turned to look at him. As much of a worrywart as Hunk was, Lance knew he could count on his buddy to help ease the tension in the room. 

“We should try to have a movie night or something, take our minds off today,” Hunk said. 

“I’m down for that,” Lance smiled. “But where are we gonna get a movie?”

“I have a few on my laptop,” Pidge offered, jumping up. “Just let me go grab the projector I’ve been working on and see if I can get it to work tonight!”

That night, the paladins ended up falling asleep in a big pile in the common area, with a content Lance laying in the middle. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance was bouncing in place as they approached the Balmera a few days later. He was actually recovered enough to go on this mission. Plus, he was excited to meet Hunk’s “not-girlfriend”. 

 

“So what’s the plan, we go in there and -pow pow pow!” Lance pretended to be shooting his bayard.  He grinned to himself as everyone else played along and started giving their imitations of  the laser guns. The atmosphere had finally relaxed too.  Even as the actual plan was explained, Lance couldn’t stop himself from grinning. He could finally go on a mission that  _ wasn’t _ just sprung on them out of nowhere. This was going to be fun.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was so not fun. Keith was going to get them all killed if he wasn’t careful. Why did Lance have to get stuck with  “Mr. Kill-First-Ask-Questions-Later” for this mission again?  “The goal was to get rid of the Galra  _ without _ destroying everything in sight, remember?” Lance hissed. “If we try to attack the Galra directly, they might hurt the Balmera. Or  _ we  _ might accidentally hurt it.”

 

“Well do you have any better ideas?” Keith asked. And while there was some bite to it, Lance grinned as he explained his plan because Keith was actually listening. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. The two of them actually made a decent team. In the end it was Keith who able to make Lance’s plan work. He’d have to figure out how Keith got that button to work one of these days, though.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All things considered, Lance thought the meeting with Shay went pretty well. Sure, they didn’t get to talk much, but, he figured they probably made a good impression. After all, they did save her people. That had to count for something right?  But now the Galra were trying to take their lions, so they had to leave. 

 

“Did everyone get back to their Lions in time?” Shiro called over the comms. 

 

“Come on Shiro, who do you think you’re dealing with, a bunch of amateurs?” As he said that he crashed the Blue Lion into a communications tower. 

 

“LANCE!” Everyone called. He groaned.

 

“I’m  _ fine, _ ” he told them, flushing pink. “I just wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, that’s all!” 

 

Shiro let out a chuckle. “So, you still want me to answer your question?”

 

“Please don’t,” Lance buried his head in his hands. He wasn’t able to wallow in his embarrassment for long though because before he knew it they were forming Voltron. This was the first time they’d formed Voltron since his seizure, and though things had mostly returned back to normal, Lance could feel the trepidation the others were giving off. And he was sure he was sending similar feelings back to them. After all, just because he appeared fine, and he had a history of being fine soon after seizures, didn’t mean there was any guarantee he was. Back on earth, he wouldn’t have been able to  _ drive _ yet and here he was less than a week after a seizure piloting a giant robot. He was kind of glad his neurologist couldn’t see him right now. She’d be  _ pissed. _ But still, he pushed through his nerves and felt the other paladins do the same.  Together, they managed to take out the warship.

 

Lance felt the strongest headrush he’d ever experienced as the exhilaration of winning swept through them all, taking a moment to reassure himself that this was normal, and not a new kind of aura before joining everyone else in their celebration. But of course, their celebration was cut short. 

 

“There’s an unknown object incoming!” Coran called through the comms. “It’s going to crash into the Balmera!”

 

Lance turned his attention to the giant ship in front of him. “What the heck is  _ that _ ?”

 

“Trouble,” Shiro responded, as Voltron shifted into an attack stance once more.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have a few more terms to clarify in this one. As well as just some facts to clarify and timeline things to clarify.
> 
> First of all, I realized I may not have mentioned this in the first chapter, but in real life, Lance would definitely NOT have been allowed to become a pilot at all. And depending on the place he lived (I know that he is canonically Cuban, but I don't know if that means he grew up in Cuba or is just of Cuban descent) it could take between 6 months to 2 years after a seizure for him to be allowed to drive again. 
> 
> I imagine Lance started looking at the Garrison a year or two before he actually applied, so the Open House mentioned is from that time period. (I have actually toured a college campus in high heels the day after a seizure and it's not fun).
> 
> Terms mentioned that may need better explanation:  
> Aura- a warning sign of a seizure. For me and Lance, this is not always "I have an aura so I'm going to have a seizure," because it is not a one to one ratio. A seizure may come without an aura and an aura may come without a seizure.  
> Status- Short for status epilepticus. It is defined by a seizure lasting more than 5 minutes or multiple seizures in a row without the patient regaining consciousness in between. This is very dangerous and is when an ambulance should be called in normal circumstances.
> 
> If you want to learn more about epilepsy, please check out the Epilepsy Foundation website at http://www.epilepsy.com/


	3. Some Much Needed Conversations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the positive responses to this fic. They really mean a lot to me. This chapter is my first time really writing combat scenes, so please let me know if you have any constructive criticism for the battle scenes especially. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

**Chapter 3**

“Please tell me there’s not a giant monster in there!” Hunk’s voice came through the comms. Lance could feel the fear radiating through the bond and tried his best to send back a wave of reassurance. “Maybe it’s empty? Or full of space candy!”

 

“I don’t think it’s a piñata Hunk,” Lance had to tell his friend. He winced as another wave of fear radiated through the bond.

“If it’s the same kind of monster that attacked us on Arus, we already know how to beat it,” Keith reminded them. Lance made a note to thank Keith for that later as a wave of calm swept through the bond.

Fear raced through the bond again though when the robeast revealed itself and began attacking.  “That is _not_ the same monster!” Lance squeaked.

They only managed to fight as Voltron for a few seconds before Lance tripped and Pidge’s shield disintegrated. Lance berated himself in his head as soon as they separated.  They could have lasted a little longer if only he had better control of his lion. But he shook that off and raced away from the others, hoping that Shiro had been right and it couldn’t shoot them all at once.

...Except apparently nothing could go right for Lance this week, as the robeast managed to shoot at all of them, sending out lasers in all directions like a light show, causing the Paladins to have to scatter even more.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not long after, the paladins were forced to retreat back into the Balmera. Lance stood by silently as he watched his best friend try to explain that they’d find a way out of this. Lance wasn’t sure they could though. He figured they should try to play it safe and evacuate. “ Can’t we take the Balmerans in our lions? How long would it take to evacuate?”

“Days at least,” Coran informed them.

“And we only have hours at most,” Keith pointed out.

“So we’ll have to evacuate with the castle,” Shiro concluded. “We can provoke and evade while Coran and Allura land.”

“But what if we’re really, really good at the provoking part and really, really bad at the evading part?” Hunk asked, then shook his head, resolve on his face. “You know what? If this is what it takes to save Shay and her people, I’m in.”

Shay started to contact the other Balmerans, frantically, though reluctantly, trying to convince them to evacuate, while the paladins took off and tried to distract the robeast, weaving and dodging as best as they could. They managed to distract it for long enough for Allura to reach the mine shafts without too much damage, although Lance had winced when he saw Hunk take a pretty big hit in an attempt to protect Allura. Even that wasn’t as worrying as the long stretch of silence from Allura over the comms though. Lance could hear the others just fine, so he knew he wasn’t losing time, so why wasn’t Allura talking to them? Was something going wrong with the plan? Finally, Coran spoke over the comms.

“Paladins, how are you holding up?” he asked

“We’ve got him pretty distracted,” Keith responded. “Are the Balmerans in position?”

“They’re making their way to the top,” Allura responded, and Lance felt some of the tension ooze out of him. Allura was fine, and they’d just have to keep this thing distracted for a little longer.

That relief was short lived though, as Lance saw part of the Balmera crumble.

“Have you evacuated yet? What’s happening?” Hunk asked over the comms, panic clear in his tone.

“The Balmerans are trapped,” Coran informed them. “Just keep that thing distracted and we’ll figure something out.”

“If we keep on trying to distract this thing, I’m pretty sure we’re gonna die!” Hunk pointed out.

“We might have to try to beat this thing guys,” Shiro called over the comms. “We’re not gonna last much longer like this.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a few more minutes, the Paladins wound up scrambling to form Voltron again, and Lance felt a surge of power overcome them as Hunk’s bayard was summoned on Voltron’s shoulder.

They shot all of the eyes of the robeast with the cannon, and Lance felt elation sweep through him. It was short-lived though as the robeast attacked once again. They punched the robeast and it collapsed. Just as they separated, Allura collapsed as well. Lance hurried out of his lion and could see the others doing the same out of the corner of his eye.

“No!” Allura screamed, and Lance turned around just in time to see the robeast become encased in crystal. Lance could do nothing but stare in shock. Hunk started petting the Balmera, and Lance just shook his head at his friend’s antics.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They were able to return to the castle not long after, and Lance was grateful. He needed the rest. Badly. He didn’t realize it before, but he wasn’t fully recovered from the seizure. He was _definitely_ more sore than he should’ve been after that fight. That amount of stress was _not_ a good thing for his muscles. But he wasn’t going to let anyone else know that. They’d either just brush it off, or they were going to start fussing again. Neither of which he wanted.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Lance?” Coran asked as they all split off to do their own activities the next day. “Could you stay and help me clean the cryopods? I’d like to speak with you anyways.”

“Sure,” Lance said, while inwardly groaning. That was the _last_ thing he needed today.

Once the reached the room with the healing pods, Lance and Coran got to work. “So what did you want to talk me about anyway?” Lance asked, hoping some conversation would distract him from the dull ache in his muscles.

“I’ve been having some trouble replicating your Earth medicine,” Coran admitted. “I was hoping you could give me some more insight into how it worked. If I had a better understanding of how it worked, I may be able to create something similar.”

Lance’s heart sunk into his stomach. “I honestly have no idea how it works Coran,” Lance explained. “Not even the scientists back on Earth know exactly how they work. It was meant to do something else and just so happened to work to stop seizures sometimes too, so it was prescribed to me.” Lance had gone on research binges on occasion, and this was one of the few things that never truly changed. Nobody knew how his medication worked.

“Do you know how seizures happen?” Coran asked. “Because I could try to engineer something different in that case.”

“I don’t really know. It’s my brain giving off more electricity than necessary, but I have no idea _why_ it happens outside of certain triggers,” Lance explained.

“That’s okay, my boy,” Coran came over and patted Lance on the shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll figure this out.”

“Thanks Coran,” Lance smiled weakly.

“It’s no problem my boy,” Coran smiled as he walked back to the pods he’d been cleaning.

After a while, Coran started rambling on about nothing, for which Lance was grateful. But soon after, the cryopod Lance was cleaning engulfed him. For a second, Lance thought maybe this pod had sensed that he was in pain and was trying to heal him. But when the pod began to retreat back into the ground, Lance knew this was not the case. He reached to bang on the glass, but he was too late to actually signal. Just like always. The last time he’d had a seizure at home, he’d doubted it was happening for a second, and the pitiful squawk he’d managed hadn’t travelled far enough to actually draw anyone to his room. The only way he’d known he had a seizure the next morning was that he was only half in his pajamas, and was still wearing his jacket. _Don’t panic,_ Lance thought. _It’ll have to let you out eventually. Somebody will notice if it doesn’t and get you out._ But he couldn’t entirely convince himself they’d find him in time. If _this_ was how he died, he was gonna be pissed.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eventually, Coran went to clean the pod Lance was in and let him out. Lance was shivering by this point, and not just because of the cold of the pod.

“This pod just tried to kill me!” Lance told Coran, who just chuckled.

“They’re probably just malfunctioning,” Coran explained as Lance glared at him.

“Okay. But what if the Castle is haunted and trying to kill us?” Lance asked.

“It may seem like the castle is magic to you, but it’s not. I assure you, it is merely extremely advanced technology. And perhaps a tiny bit of magic.” Coran told him Lance just stared at him disbelievingly. “Ok, so it may seem like it’s haunted, but I can assure you, it’s not.” Coran said, twirling his mustache.

As the two of them went their separate ways, Lance kept on mumbling to himself. “I’m okay,” he reassured himself. “I’m definitely okay. Nothing is going to kill me. I’m fine.”

After a while, though, Lance heard Coran calling for help. “ Help!” I’m trapped in the airlock!” Coran’s voice called.

“I knew the castle was haunted!’ Lance murmured to himself as he raced off to help his friend. He entered the airlock, and nobody was there. As he turned around, the airlock closed behind him.

“Airlock closing in 30 ticks,” an automated voice started.

“Oh no. No no no no no. This can’t be happening. I can’t die like this!” Lance started freaking out.

“Somebody help me!” he called. But nobody responded. Finally, Keith came running down the hallway.

“Keith!” Lance called out, even as he noticed keith was being pursued. Keith glanced back at Lance quickly.

“What are you doing in there?’ Keith ground out as if Lance had gotten himself trapped in an airlock on purpose.

“Does it matter?! I have 4 ticks before I get sucked out into space!” Lance sputtered. Not long after, the door behind him opened, and Lance could feel himself getting sucked out into space. He gripped the edge of the floor tightly, and screamed louder for Keith to help him. He was barely holding on, his arms already tired and sore before this happened, and he wasn’t sure how long he could hold out for. After what seemed like an eternity, Keith slammed down on the button to open the airlock, throwing his opponent out and dragging Lance back in.

“What were you doing out there?!” Keith yelled once they’d both caught their breaths.

“Who was that guy?” Lance asked, hoping he wouldn’t be forced to explain the fact that the castle had tricked him to Keith.

“He was trying to kill me!” Keith yelled, gesticulating wildly.

“Well is he the Castle? Because the Castle is definitely trying to kill me right now,” Lance complained.  Keith stared at Lance for a minute. Lance fidgeted a little under Keith’s gaze, not able to tell exactly what Keith was thinking before Keith nodded.

“Let’s go find the others,” Keith spoke, standing up and offering his hand to Lance. “If the castle is trying to kill us, we need a plan.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They found Pidge and Hunk lying in the kitchen. “How can you take a nap while the Castle is trying to kill us?” Lance asked, flailing.

“We weren’t napping!” Hunk shouted indignantly. “We were floating around in zero G! Do you have any idea how scary that is?”

“Sounds pretty fun compared to nearly getting shot out the airlock!” Lance exclaimed.

“I got attacked by food! At least the airlock is _supposed_ to be scary! How am I ever supposed to look at food the same way again?” Hunk persisted.

“I had a robot trying to kill me!” Keith interjected his two cents.

“Coran! The castle is definitely haunted!” Lance said, whirling around to face the advisor, who had joined them on their way to find Hunk and Pidge.

“Perhaps the Galra crystal has affected the Castle more than we thought…” Coran admitted.

“Well can we get rid of it? ‘Cause… uh… I’d kind of like to not have the Castle trying to kill us,” Hunk pointed out.

“I’m afraid not,” Coran told him. “It corrupted the entire system when Sendak plugged it in.”

“Sendak?” Keith questioned, then a look of realization dawned on him. “Wait. Has anyone seen Shiro?”

They all looked at each other for a moment and then headed for the area where Sendak was being held.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they found Shiro, the alarms were going off, and Sendak was nowhere to be found. Lance tried not to show how nervous the strobes that came along with the alarms made him, but he was unspeakably grateful for the presence of Hunk at his side.

“Are you okay?” Pidge asked, the question directed at Shiro but her eyes drifting to Lance, who nodded subtly.

“Where’s Sendak?” Keith asked.

“I...I had to get him out of here… he was talking to me…he can’t be trusted here.” Shiro said, stumbling over his words.

“It’s definitely the ship,” Lance declared. “It’s been trying to kill us all morning!”

Just then, a notification on the computer beeped.

“That shouldn’t be possible,” Coran commented, confused and alarmed as he squinted at the computer.

“What is it?” Keith asked

“The ship is starting a wormhole jump!”

They all sprinted off to the control room at that.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Allura, what’s going on?” Shiro called as they arrived.

“We’re going to Altea. My father is taking us,” Allura said turning to the Paladins, her eyes glazed over as if she couldn’t really see them. They tried to approach her to snap her out of it, but suddenly the whole room was overtaken by an image of a face Lance had never seen before.

“Do not approach my daughter!” the man bellowed. Lance stared. _This_ was the king they’d heard so much about? But more importantly, Allura hadn’t even flinched at her father’s tone. Did she have any idea what was going on right now? Lance shuddered.

“Allura! Wake up!” Shiro pleaded.

“The crystal must have corrupted King Alfor’s artificial intelligence! It’s taking over the castle!” Coran panicked.

“We’re headed straight for a star that’s about to explode!” Pidge pointed out, unhelpfully in Lance’s opinion.

“Father, I can see Altea,” Allura said calmly. Lance flinched. There was definitely no way Allura knew what was going on. And she was going to be heartbroken when she snapped out of this.

“Allura! Wake up! It’s not real!” Coran pleaded, his voice cracking on the last bit.

“Of course it’s real,” the hologram of the king argued. “That flower you’re touching is real.”

“But where is the fragrance of the juniberries Allura?” Coran pointed out.

Lance could see Allura’s eyes clear, and widen in horror as she took in the sight before her.

“That’s not Altea,” Allura cried.

“That star’s going to go supernova any minute!” Pidge pointed out. “You have to reset the course Allura!”

“Father! We need to turn around! If we don’t, we’ll all perish! Please stop this!” Allura pleaded.

“No. We must stay on course. Zarkon can never be defeated, it is better to just end it all now.”

“But we must continue to fight! The Paladins and I can still stop Zarkon! Somewhere, you must want that to happen!”

The screen glitched and suddenly, the man on screen appeared much more benevolent, much more like the man Lance had heard stories about.

“Allura, my A.I. has been corrupted. You must disconnect my power source.” It glitched again, and Lance watched the pain on Allura’s face as her father changed again, trying to convince her to let them all die. But then a look of resolve overtook her face.

“I’ve got to get into the A.I. chamber to disconnect Father’s power source manually,” Allura told them all, focusing on Coran.

“But that means losing King Alfor forever!” Coran protested. Allura turned away from him.

“Paladins, get to your Lions! I need you to slow down the castle from the outside!”

The paladins raced to their lions at that, straining to slow the ship, and were thankfully called back just in time for the castle to wormhole away from the exploding star. Lance slumped in relief as they exited the wormhole, allowing himself to grin as he heard the others relax too.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey Princess,” Lance called when he spotted Allura in the hall later. “Whatcha up to?”

“Oh… I was just going for a walk…” Allura shifted, refusing to look Lance in the eye.

“Are you okay Princess?” Lance frowned.

“Oh, yes, yes I’m fine,” Allura said, fidgeting still.

“Are you sure? Because you don’t really look it,” Lance pointed out. “You can talk to me about it. I won’t tell anybody,” he promised.

“How are you still being so kind to me? I almost killed us all this morning,” Allura asked.

“Yeah, but… it didn’t really seem like you were in full control of what you did,” Lance shrugged.

“I still should have done better,” Allura argued. “If I had been stronger…”

“There’s no shame in not being in control all the time,” Lance told her. “I understand that it’s scary, but  it doesn’t make you any less strong.”

“But I almost hurt all of you! I don’t know how I would’ve been able to live with myself if you all had died because of me!” Allura protested.

“I mean… technically you would’ve been killed with us so you wouldn’t have had to…” Lance tried to joke but saw that that obviously wasn’t working and switched track. “You know, I accidentally hit my brother during a seizure once,” he admitted. “ Gave him an awful black eye. I felt awful after. Took me weeks to realize it wasn’t my fault. But maybe I _should_ feel bad about it still. At least, that’s what you seem to think, and I guess you might be right.” Lance said, hoping putting it that way would help Allura see how ridiculous she was being.

“Of course that wasn’t your fault,” Allura told him. “You had no control over what you were doing, and I know you would never have intentionally hurt your brother.”

“Then what happened today isn’t your fault either,” Lance insisted. “You had no idea what you were doing, and I know for a fact that you would rather die yourself than to hurt any of us intentionally. I’m not going to say you have to believe me right away, because trust me, I know that that’s easier said than done. But just… remember that the rest of us believe it. Okay?”

Lance said.

“Thank you,” Allura said. “I may not believe it quite yet, but I think I needed this talk.”

“It was no problem Princess,” Lance waved her off. “If you need to talk about anything, you can always come to me. Remember that.”

“Thank you. I will,” Allura acknowledged as the two went their separate ways.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a few facts in this chapter that I wanted to reinforce:  
> Medication- Lance mentions that he doesn't know how is medication works. This is true of many epilepsy medications, including my own, which is what I'm working with in my head here when I try to figure out Lance's medication. I'm lucky in that generic brands of my medication work for me, but some people have issues with generic versions of medications not working as well for some reason. So Coran will have to be extra careful to avoid issues like that as well.  
> Causes of Epileptic Seizures- It is actually more common than not to be unable to identify what specifically is wrong to cause the seizures in epilepsy. 6 out of 10 people with epilepsy, including myself, don't know what causes their epilepsy. 
> 
> As always, if you are interested in learning more about epilepsy, check out the Epilepsy Foundation website at www.epilepsy.com  
> In addition, www.talkaboutit.org just posted some great videos last week if you learn better by having a verbal explanation.


	4. Into the Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long. I had a lot of trouble figuring out to write after about the half way point of this chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

**Chapter 4**

The next week passed by in a blur. Shiro and Allura were busy planning something, so all they wound up doing was training. Things were actually peaceful for now, and Lance was grateful for that. 

But then everything went to shit. Allura got captured by the Galra, and when they went to rescue her, they wound up having to fight Zarkon. When they finally managed to retreat, Haggar hit the wormhole with some strange magic lightning, and it spit the paladins out in random locations. 

And then shit happened that would  _ really _ piss off Lance’s neurologist. He wound up following mermaids to the bottom of the ocean, which was  _ definitely _ near the top of the list of things Lance wasn’t allowed to do under any circumstances. And Lance didn’t have his meds on him. He should probably start keeping some of his meds in Blue, but that was something he could worry about later. Right now, he was living the dream. He’d always wanted to meet a mermaid, and one had just led them to a city full of them. They were about to go meet their queen even. Hunk had to ruin it by being all logical though. “We really have to get back to our Lions and fix them so we can contact our friends in space,” Hunk informed the queen when they finally met her. 

“We can solve all your problems,” Queen Luxia  told them. “Here, we are all safe and warm.”

Then, one of the guards used something called bubble coral to give them air bubbles. Lance watched nervously though as Hunk took off his helmet. Their suits not only supplied them with air, but automatically regulated the pressure in them, so he’d felt safe coming this far with his helmet on, but what if the bubbles only gave them air? Hunk noticed Lance’s look and gave him a subtle thumbs up, so Lance sighed and removed his helmet too.  A bright pink light caught Lance’s eye as he looked at Hunk though. “What’s that?” he asked the queen, frowning. 

“That’s the Baku Garden. It keeps us all safe and warm,” Queen Luxia explained. “It gives us food, and light, and warmth.”

“Um… speaking of food, I’m starving. You wouldn’t happen to mind giving us some food, would you?”

“Of course you may eat. It is about time for dinner anyway. Follow me,” she replied. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This food is amazing!” Hunk complimented.

“I am glad you’re enjoying it. I hope you enjoy the entertainment as well,” the queen replied. 

Lance was really excited to see the mermaids dancing, and then it turned out to just be an octopus dancing, and he slumped in disappointment. As the dance went on, though, Lance’s mind went fuzzy. He tried to fight it, but he couldn’t. He was pretty sure it wasn’t an aura though… this felt different. Most of his thoughts were cloudy, but he could distinctly make out his positive thoughts. They were in much sharper focus than his concerns. He couldn’t even be concerned about the fact that he didn’t have his meds with him, as they led them to back to a bedroom and Hunk instantly fell asleep. All Lance could think of was how happy he was to be here as he drifted off as well.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next thing Lance knew, he was being completely covered with a strange blanket. It was almost like a bag. Actually, he was pretty sure it  _ was _ a bag. In the back of his mind, he knew this should alarm him, but the fuzz in his head made it hard to care. He fell asleep again and woke up to being blindfolded by a starfish. “ Where am I?” Lance asked, “Is this a game?”  In the back of the mind, he was aware that it wasn’t but the optimistic part of his mind had completely taken over by now. “I like games,” Lance told whoever was there. His mind drifted back to when he was little, playing pin-the-tail on the donkey and trying to break the piñata at birthday parties with his friends. Maybe it was gonna be like that, only underwater and in space, he thought through the fuzz. Then, suddenly, the fuzz cleared.  “Wait, where am I?” Lance panicked. “Why am I blindfolded?” If there was one thing he knew was a bad sign, it was that he didn’t know who blindfolded him. “Is this a game?” He flashed back to watching Saw with his older brothers, and shuddered. He really hoped it wasn’t that kind of game. “I hate games!”

The blindfold was removed, and he saw three seemingly concerned faces. But he’d watched enough horror films to know that they were most likely faking. He had to get out of there. He backed away until he hit a wall, and then decided to see if the jets on his armor worked. Thankfully, they worked just fine, and he rocketed away, but every path he took seemed to lead to some sort of horrific dead end. Eventually, his captors caught up to him. He listened skeptically as they explained their theory to him, but eventually, he concluded that even if they were crazy, they seemed harmless enough. And suddenly, the fuzz made sense. “Holy crow! I had a mind controlling brain infection!” Lance realized. He was definitely going to have to ask Coran to see if that had done any permanent damage when they got back. Lance decided to help these guys. Besides, if what they said  _ was _ true, he needed to save Hunk before it was too late. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The plan immediately went south. He tried to charm his way past the guards, but it didn’t work. Next thing he knew, Hunk was being ordered to take him to the Baku Garden. As Hunk glared at him and began to push him toward the garden, Lance looked sadly back at his friend. Lance tried to administer the antidote, but Hunk knocked it out of his hand before he succeeded. Soon, everyone was being ordered to capture him, and Hunk rushed after him. Lance managed to dodge the other two guards, but Hunk caught up to him, Throwing him across the room and slamming him into walls. “Hunk! Please stop! I don’t want to hurt you!” Lance cried, as he prayed this bubble was giving his head enough cushion that he wouldn’t end up with a concussion from this fight. Finally, Lance managed to administer the antidote using his feet.They tried to get to their Lions, but were quickly surrounded by guards. Luckily, the three mermaids who Lance had been trying to help came to their rescue.  They made it to the Lions, and were able to get rid of the mind control on some of the guards before capturing Queen Luxia. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They figured out that the Baku Garden was actually responsible for everyone being mind controlled, and Lance and Hunk started fighting it. The two of them were able to work together to trap it in one place, and then, Blue suddenly nudged at Lance’s mind, urging him to use a new weapon, though she wouldn’t tell him what it was. The sonic boom weapon was definitely a surprise, but it did the job, so Lance wasn’t gonna complain. After the fight, they were able to contact the others, and Lance breathed a sigh of relief as they boarded the castle. He’d technically only missed one dose and was late for the second, but he hadn’t felt an aura kick in yet, so hopefully he’d be able to take his meds when they boarded and he’d be fine. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later, after Lance had talked to Coran and confirmed that everything was fine, he was ambushed by a hug from Hunk. “I’m so sorry buddy,” Hunk wailed as he squeezed Lance tightly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you!  Come on! Let’s go get Coran to make sure you’re okay!” Hunk released Lance, only to grab his arm and start running back in the direction that Lance had just come from. 

“Hunk, chill, it’s okay. I’m okay.” Lance tried to reassure his friend. 

“You don’t know that!” Hunk protested. “I threw you into a wall! And I don’t even wanna know how many other times in that fight you must have hit your head!” 

“Dude, I already had Coran check me over. I’m fine. It’s okay,” Lance soothed. 

Hunk relaxed a little at that. “Still, I’m sorry,” Hunk insisted.

“I know you are buddy. But I know you didn’t do it on purpose,” Lance reassured Hunk, pulling his friend into a hug. “C’mon, you can stay in my room tonight,” Lance said as he pulled away. 

“Wait, what?” Hunk asked.

“Well, you’re probably not gonna believe I’m okay, no matter how many times I tell you, so you can stay with me tonight. That way you can see for yourself that I’m okay,” Lance shrugged.

“Thanks buddy,” Hunk smiled weakly at Lance. 

“What are friends for, right?” Lance grinned at him.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

As the team watched Shiro in the healing pod, twitching and grunting as if he was in pain, Hunk turned to Allura. “Is he okay?” Hunk asked.

“Sometimes, the healing process can cause involuntary brainwave reactions,” Allura explained.

“Wait, what?! And you guys put  _ me _ in one of those?” Lance jumped up and shouted at Allura.

“Well, it’s the best way to heal you, Lance, so of course we did,” Allura told him, confused as to why he was so concerned about it.

“Okay, new rule. Nobody is allowed to stick me in one of those things  _ ever _ ,” Lance said.

“But you could die if we don’t put you in a pod!” Keith exclaimed.

“Allura just freaking described a seizure and you expect me to be okay with going back into one of those things Keith? Nope. Not unless it’s life or death. And even then, there better be  _ no _ other choice or I will kill whoever puts me in there!” Lance raged at the team. 

“Welp, there goes that emergency plan,” Hunk sighed. 

“What emergency plan?” Lance asked turning to his friend. 

“In case you go into status,” Hunk shrugged. “I told Shiro we could just sedate you and stick you in a pod and hope for the best. Guess the plan’s down to just sedating you now. ‘Cause you’re right. There’s no way I’m sticking you in a pod now.”

“Thank you, Hunk,” Lance nodded.

“Is there anyway we could recalibrate the pods to make sure that doesn’t happen?” Pidge asked Coran.

“We can try, but it may make the healing pods less effective,” Coran mused.

“Yeah, well, they’re not much help to Lance right now anyways if they’re just gonna give him seizures,” Hunk pointed out. “I say we go for it. At least modify one or two of them.”

The conversation was interrupted by Shiro stumbling out of his pod, and telling them that he remembered how he escaped from Zarkon now.  Lance looked at Shiro skeptically as he explained, but despite Lance’s thoughts on the matter, they were soon headed to the coordinates the Galra had left with Shiro.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the castle approached the Thaldycon system, Coran explained that even grazing  the Xanthorium clusters could make them explode. Then the alarms were blaring, and Lance hurried to get his armor on. He sighed in relief as the tint to his visor made the strobes slightly more bearable, and ran out into the hallway searching for the intruder. Soon enough he located the intruder, who immediately started dashing for him. Lance panicked and started shooting blindly, the intruder dodging everything thrown at him with precision. Lance dashed after him, watching as Pidge tried to slow down the intruder with her bayard, though she only succeeded in getting dragged down the hallway. Lance managed to keep up until Pidge slid past Hunk, who almost shot her in his panic. The two of them tried to follow but got lost as Keith joined in the fray. Luckily, the tracking systems let them find the others before the fight ended. Lance stared in awe as Shiro subdued the intruder. 

“Champion?” the intruder asked, taking off his mask.

“Ulaz!” Shiro exclaimed, letting the Galra go.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Allura ordered the Paladins to escort Ulaz to his base, Lance froze. He didn’t really understand how this space taco thing worked, but he  _ did _ know that it was right next to the Xanthorium clusters Coran had told them about earlier. And while Lance trusted Blue with all his heart,  he wasn’t sure how good her reaction time would be if he had a seizure. He  _ really _ didn’t want to accidentally blow everything up just because he had the worst luck ever, so he spoke up. “I’ll stay behind and protect the Princess,” he gloated, causing Allura to scowl. 

“Fine then, Lance will remain here, and the rest of you will go to this supposed base in the Red Lion,” Allura conceded. Lance internally fist-pumped until he realized that  _ all _ of the other Paladins were going in the Red Lion. He would’ve gone with him if he’d known  _ that _ . But it was too late now. It would look weird if he changed his mind at this point. 

“You guys have fun,” Lance called as the others headed for the Red Lion’s hangar.  “I’ll be right here enjoying some quality time with the princess if you need me!” Lance waggled his eyebrows. 

Once the others left, Lance deflated. Luckily, Coran and Allura didn’t seem to notice, focusing on piloting the castle ship.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of  _ course _ a robeast somehow managed to track them down inside the space taco. Because Lance just couldn’t have any good luck this week, now could he? Lance was  _ not _ looking forward to this battle. As Lance entered Blue’s cockpit however, a feeling of calm swept over him, just as it always did around his Lion. “Okay girl, we can do this,” Lance muttered. “We’ll be fine.”

“Okay team, time to form Voltron,” Shiro called. As the Lions connected, Lance felt the nerves completely leave him as everyone else’s emotions melded with his own, drowning the paranoia out. They burst past the Xanthorium clusters, and immediately decked the robeast. A surge of exhilaration swept through Lance. They continued to throw everything they had at the robeast, but as the battle progressed, they seemed to be doing less and less damage. Just as things began to look hopeless, the castle ship swept in, buying them time. 

“Is everyone alright?” Allura asked.

“Alive, yes, alright, no,” Lance told her, his head pounding at this point.

They immediately swept back into battle against the robeast, Pidge summoning the shield to try to block the tractor beam. They then drove the robeast towards the Xanthorium clusters and blew one up. For a moment, it looked like they’d won, but the robeast just came back at them stronger than ever. There was no way they could win this battle. 

But then, Ulaz swept in and defeated the robeast. The battle was won. But Ulaz was dead.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Shiro?” Lance called, knocking on the older Paladin’s door. “Can I come in?”

“Sure,” Shiro called. As the door opened, Shiro turned to frown at Lance. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m fine,” Lance assured Shiro, “I actually just wanted to check in and make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine Lance,” Shiro replied, sending Lance a strained smile.

“No, you’re not,” Lance frowned.

“Lance,” Shiro ground out. “I told you, I’m  _ fine _ . I promise.”

“You’re a terrible liar Shiro, did you know that?” Lance informed him, hopping up on the bed.

“I’m not lying!” Shiro protested.

“You definitely are,” Lance told him. “You know I’m not leaving here until you tell me the truth, right? Even if it takes all night. Heck, I’m prepared to sleep here if that’s what it takes.”

“Fine,” Shiro huffed. “It’s just, what happened with Ulaz today, it shouldn’t have happened. He died to protect us Lance. He didn’t even know us, but he sacrificed himself anyway. He shouldn’t have had to. We should’ve been able to beat that thing. I mean, how are we supposed to beat the next one anyway? These things just keep getting tougher to beat, and if we needed help with this one, what’s going to happen next time? Are more innocent people going to have to sacrifice themselves for us Lance? Because I don’t know about you, but I’m not okay with that.”

Lance blinked a few times, trying to process Shiro’s rant. He’d honestly been expecting a lot more resistance, but he wasn’t going to dwell on that for too long. Instead, he spoke up to address Shiro’s point.

“Shiro, this wasn’t our fault, okay? I know it sucks, but honestly? Ulaz actually signed up for this. He knew what he was getting himself into. He’s been fighting Zarkon for longer than we have. And he had every opportunity to leave. We definitely bought him enough time that he didn’t have to get involved in the fight. It was one hundred percent his decision. As for what happens next time? We’ll get stronger. We’ll train harder, and we’ll be prepared next time a robeast shows up. We won’t let this happen again. I promise.”

Shiro gave Lance a sad smile, but it was less forced than before, so Lance took that as a small victory. “Thanks Lance, that helped.”

“No problem,”Lance smiled. 

“Now go to sleep,” Shiro ordered. 

“Yes sir,” Lance saluted cheekily before dashing off to his own room.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Lance broke the rules again.  
> People with epilepsy aren't supposed to go scuba diving. From what I understand, it has to do with the pressure on your body possibly triggering a seizure, which could then lead to drowning or complications from not depressurizing properly. Lance didn't have much of a choice here though, and I think his paladin armor would do a good job of protecting him form this kind of danger.  
>  As always, check out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org for more information on epilepsy.


	5. Roboplants and Teleduvs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry this took so long. To be honest, I had trouble finding the motivation to write about the Olkari episode. But I'm working on this fic for Camp Nanowrimo now, so updates should be hopefully more frequent for a while. I also got a tumblr between my last update and now, so if anyone wants to talk about this fic or anything else, I'm haikyuupaladin on tumblr.

**Chapter 5**

Lance listened intently as Allura and Coran tried to guide the Paladins through repairing the ship. “Just loosen the plaxoms on the sommerflange” Coran instructed.

“Wait what?” Hunk asked.

“He meant the poklons on the aggroclans,” Allura instructed.

“Still not getting it,” Hunk admitted. Lance pushed Hunk aside.

“I’ve got this buddy,” he reassured Hunk. There were only so many things Allura and Coran could be talking about,” Lance figured. And it wasn’t like trial and error could make things too much worse right?  So he pressed a few buttons and then loosened a few valve looking things, and suddenly the device and the entire castle started glowing red. 

“No not the smoulters!” Allura called. “The poklons!”

“I’m telling you it’s the plaxoms!” Coran argued. Meanwhile, Lance stared in horror. The ship was going to blow up and it was his fault. Luckily, Pidge managed to fix it no problem. A few seconds later, some glowy blue balls drifted into the area. Lance had never seen snow in real life before, but these things looked close enough to snowballs to have a snowball fight with. Lance casually plucked one out of the air and tested it with his hand. It actually felt pretty similar to the balls Lance and his siblings used to play with in the pool. He grinned and tossed it at Shiro’s head. This would be the perfect way to get Shiro to relax for once. 

Shiro whirled around to look at Lance. 

“Whoops. Sorry Shiro, I was trying to hit Keith,” Lance lied, trying to look innocent. The next thing Lance knew, a ball splattered against his visor.

“Like that?” Keith smirked. 

Hunk zoomed out with two of the balls in his hands. “Squishy asteroid fight!”  he declared. Hunk and Lance immediately teamed up against Keith and Shiro. Lance and Hunk were slinging the balls everywhere, seemingly at random, but they always hit their marks. Why the two close ranged fighters of the team thought it would be a good idea to team up against the two long ranged fighters in a contest like this, Lance would never know. But he and Hunk were totally winning and that was all that mattered, until Pidge said something about how the balls were actually coded spores, and Allura made them come in for decontamination. Apparently, “decontamination” was basically code for  “Paladin Car Wash” Although Lance actually didn’t mind the part where the room filled up with water. It reminded him of swimming back home. He hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed swimming until he and Hunk had left the mermaid planet, but now even just a few seconds of swimming was like heaven. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After they’d been decontaminated, the paladins split off on their own. Lance decided to head back to his room and relax. He took a shower and then he put on the weird Altean cream he’d convinced Allura to give him that seemed to function pretty well as a face mask. But just as he was about to settle in and read one of the translated Altean romance novels Coran had given him, he heard talking outside his door. 

“But what about the Blue Lion?” Keith’s voice travelled through the door. Lance tensed. Was Keith trying to take Blue from him? It wasn’t impossible. After all, Blue  _ had _ called to Keith back on Earth. They had to have  _ some _ sort of connection right? Back on Earth, Keith had taken the fighter pilot spot that should have been Lance’s. There was no way he was going to let him take Blue too.

“Why are you asking about my Lion?” Lance opened the door to interrogate Keith. “How many Lions do you need anyway?”

“I wasn’t-” Keith started.

“Don’t try to tell me you’re not trying to take Blue!” Lance interrupted. “You’ve had your eye on her from day one!”

“Well, yeah, it’s the first one we found,” Keith admitted. Lance’s heart clenched. Was Keith really going to try to take Blue from him?

“Well you can’t have her! Blue is with me, and we’re very happy together!” Lance told him.

Lance was about to retreat back into his room and try to relax again  when Pidge called the paladins down to her lab. It turned out that the spores were a distress signal, and they came from a super advanced society. Soon enough, they were flying to the coordinates embedded in the spores. But as they approached, the Lions were hit with some strange arrows. Something was pulling Blue down, and Lance did  _ not  _ like it. Nothing should be in control of Blue except for him or Blue herself. This was just plain  _ wrong _ .  

When they landed, Lance could feel himself regain control of Blue, and he relaxed. While Shiro and Pidge went off with their leader, Lance watched in awe as they manipulated not only the trees, but what looked like their bugs, into something Lance was sure Pidge would love to take apart and tinker with.

Soon enough, Shiro and Pidge came back. “So here’s the deal team,” Shiro explained. “The Galra have taken the Olkari’s King. Our top priority right now is to get him back. Reiner said that the Olkari have something that will help us.”

The paladins followed Reiner until they came to a clearing.

“Where are we?” Keith asked.

“This, is the armory,” Reiner informed them as one of the Olkari made a blaster out of a giant flower. Lance stared in awe at all of the cool weapons that were being made out of  _ flowers _ and  _ trees. _ When Reiner told them they could have their own Olkari weapons, Lance was excited. And then she explained that the weapons were controlled by brainwaves sent in binary code, and Lance realized there was no fucking way the weapons would work for him. For one, he was pretty sure his brainwaves were kind of fucked up enough to confuse the tree. And more importantly, he didn’t know binary code. Luckily, Lance wasn’t the only one who couldn’t make a tree robot. In fact, Pidge was the only one who  _ could. _ Pidge brought Hunk and Lance with her in her tree robot to where the captured Olkari were. From there, they made their plan to free King Lubos. When they went to save him the next day though, it turned out he didn’t really need any saving. In fact, he was quite comfortable, watching a soap opera while one of his people stood by in handcuffs, ready to serve him.  Lance felt his blood begin to boil at the realization as Galra drones flooded in. But what really sent Lance over the edge was when Lubos claimed that he was sitting around as the Galra’s pet for the sake of his people. 

“You helped enslave your people and made them build a weapon of mass destruction! What part of that sounds like its or their sake to you?!” Lance asked incredulously.

“He forced me to do it!” Lubos argued. 

“Oh, yeah, and I’m sure he force fed you too, right?” Lance retorted sarcastically.

“You are no king,” Keith sneered, running at Lubos and holding his bayard to his throat. “If anyone tries to stop us from walking out of here, Lubos gets it!” Keith announced. “Can’t have us killing your genius engineer right?” 

“Actually,” the lead Galra announced, “The cube is finished. He’s no use to us now.” 

Just as the Galra were about to attack them, Pidge burst in and saved them. They took Lubos back to the Olkari, and convinced them to help Voltron free the rest of their people. 

Voltron tried to take down the cube, but it just kept on spitting their attacks back at them. Eventually, they started attacking it with Voltron’s sword, but it only wound up making more smaller, powerful cubes. They split into their separate Lions and Lance tried freezing the cubes, only to get frozen in return. 

Suddenly, Pidge got blasted out of the air. Lance wanted to go help her, but there was nothing he could do. The Lions were steadily losing against the cubes. Just as they were about to lose for sure, Pidge came to the rescue, unlocking a new weapon in her Lion that the cubes couldn’t replicate.She destroyed them quickly with her new vine laser. The Olkari were safe now and they were able to return to the castle ship for some relaxation. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, they had only been on the castle ship for a few minutes when Zarkon’s ship appeared, looming in front of the castle. 

“We need to wormhole out of here,” Shiro declared. “We have to put some distance between us and Zarkon.”

As Allura tried to put some distance between the castleship and the Galra ships, Shiro, Keith and Lance used the drones at their battle stations to lay down cover fire and  hopefully damage some of the ships. 

“Lance! 12 ‘o clock!” Pidge called. As Lance maneuvered his drone into position, Keith’s drone zoomed in from out of nowhere and shoved Lance’s out of the  way and took out the ships Maybe Keith really  _ was _ trying to take Lance’s spot as the Blue Paladin. 

“What was that for?” Lance cried out indignantly, really hoping that Keith had a good reason.

“Sorry, gotta be quick!” Keith replied. Lance’s heart sank. Apparently, Keith didn’t think Lance could handle this. Even if Keith  _ wasn’t _ trying to replace Lance himself, maybe he was trying to get Lance replaced in general.

“Stay in your zones!” Shiro called back to them.

“Yeah Keith! Stay in your zone!” Lance said, relieved that Shiro at least seemed to believe that Lance could handle his job. 

Allura managed to get the ship clear to wormhole, but the wormhole broke down before they reached the exit point. Coran went to go see what was wrong, but slid and collided face-first into a wall. 

“Woah, dude, are you okay?” Lance asked.

“I’m fine. I probably just hit a slippery part on the ground there,” Coran tried to brush it off. “Someone clean that up!”

“Coran, you’re sweating,” Allura pointed out. “It’s possible that you’ve come down with a case of the slipperies.”

“What?! No! That’d mean I was old!” Coran protested. “And I’m certainly not old! I’m young! Or at least, young-ish.”

“What are the slipperies?” Lance asked. “Do we need to worry about catching it?” Lance could  _ not _ afford a fever right now. Not when the entire universe depended on his nervous system  _ not  _ turning on him.

“It’s a common Altean virus that we might get later in life,” Allura explained. “It’s not harmful, and only lasts a couple of days, but it causes our bodies to secrete an extremely thick fluid. As far as I know,  it’s impossible for any other race to contract it.”

“And if humans turn out to be the one race that can also get it?” Hunk asked nervously. “Like, do you think we’d get the same symptoms? Or would it be like, 10 times worse or something?”

“That won’t be an issue Hunk,” Coran tried to reassure them. “I don’t have the slipperies.” 

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about Coran,” Allura placated.

“I’m not embarrassed. I just don’t have them,” Coran asserted. “In fact, I’m just going to leave now and fix the main turbine.”

Coran didn’t get very far at first, but then he slipped and slid all the way down the hallway.

“In all seriousness, Princess,” Hunk said, turning to Allura. “If there’s even a  _ chance  _ that we could catch what Coran has, I think Lance needs to stay far away from Coran until this is out of his system.”

“Wait, why?” Keith frowned, and Lance knew he wasn’t imagining the concern on Keith’s face.

“Me plus fever tends to equal seizure,” Lance explained. “Which really isn’t something we can afford right now.” Lance elaborated as Keith’s frown deepened. “I mean, it’s technically only a  _ high _ fever that could trigger a seizure, but I’m still not sure we should chance it.”

“The chances of any of you contracting the slipperies is so infinitesimally low that it may as well be zero,” Allura assured them. “And if it  _ were _ possible, you’d already be exhibiting symptoms by now. The virus has actually stopped being contagious by the time symptoms appear.”

“You know, you really should probably open with that next time,” Hunk told her. “That would’ve saved us a lot of worry, y’know?”

“Now that that’s settled,” Shiro said. “We should start planning our next move. Zarkon doesn’t know where we are, so that gives us some time. We should try to track down that secret group, the Blade of Marmora. Pidge can you get us the coordinates?”

“I’m so tired my brain’s not working,” Pidge complained.

“Mine too,” Lance nodded.

“Maybe you should take a nap buddy,” Hunk started fidgeting as Pidge whirled around to face Lance.

“I’m fine,” Lance protested. And he was. At least, he was as fine as the rest of them were. He was tired, sure, and he couldn’t think entirely straight, but this was  exhaustion fuzzy and not seizure fuzzy. 

“You should still probably take a nap, Lance,” Pidge told him. “We don’t know when the next chance we get to sleep will be. And like you said, we can’t really afford to be a man down right now. Go. We’ll wake you if we need anything.”

Lance looked around guiltily. The others weren’t going to have a chance to sleep until the ship was fixed. He didn’t want to be the only one sleeping while the others were being productive. But he knew Pidge was right. He needed to sleep while he had the chance. 

“Fine,” he huffed. “But you have to wake me up no matter how small it is. If you need me to do something, you’re waking me up, ok?”

“Ok,” Shiro nodded. “Now go get some sleep. You need it.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just after Lance finally managed to fall asleep, the alarms started blaring. Lance groaned as he dashed to his battle station, not bothering to put on his armor. As he arrived, he fully processed what was going on. “They found us again?! That doesn’t seem like it should be possible! It shouldn’t be possible, right?!”

“We have to figure out how to get out of now,” Allura told them.

“Or we could stay and fight!” Keith protested. “If we form Voltron, we can beat him! I’m tired of running!”

“We can’t beat Zarkon and an entire fleet right now,” Shiro argued. “Last time we tried to fight him, we wouldn’t have escaped without the Blade of Marmora’s help. And we were running on full power then.”

Coran interrupted the conversation, admitting he had a case of the slipperies and asking Pidge to help him fix the wormholer. In the meantime, Lance and Keith were forced to work together to keep the Galra fleet from breaching the particle barrier.

Suddenly, the defense drones disappeared, along with the other defenses. 

“The systems must be failing!” Keith said, pulling up diagnostic screens.

“Nope, we’re just diverting power from all non-essential systems to power the wormholer,” Pidge explained over the communications screen. Luckily, they managed to wormhole out of there before any damage was done, but the wormhole didn’t get them very far. 

“He keeps finding us,” Shiro pointed out. “It’s like he has some sort of tracking device. No matter where we go he just keeps finding us!”

“Well it can’t be anything on the ship,” Allura informed them. “The castle would’ve detected a tracking device.”

“From now on, until we figure out how he’s tracking us, we need to remain alert. Zarkon could show up at any moment,” Shiro told them. “Understood?” The team nodded their assent. “How’s the teleduv coming along Coran?”

“That last wormhole broke even more lenses,”Coran informed them. “We’re going to try changing the beam trajectory. Until we can, wormholing will be impossible.”

“There’s a giant metallic storm up ahead though!” Pidge told them. “If we hide in the eye of the storm, it should give of enough interference to make tracking us impossible!” 

“Good idea,” Allura told her once they reached the eye of the storm. “No known technology can detect us here.” 

Despite that statement, the Galra still managed to track them to them down. “However they’re tracking us down, it’s definitely not normal technology,” Pidge called.

“It’s me,” Allura stated sadly. “It’s been me all along. That’s how they tracked us down on Arus”

“It doesn’t matter,” Shiro told her. “We’re in this together, we’re gonna get out together.” Soon enough, a plan was in place. It was dangerous, and Lance didn’t like it, but it was their only chance. They dashed to their Lions and formed Voltron and flew at the Galra fleet.The storm tore apart the Galra ships for them, but the debris was doing some pretty heavy damage. Luckily they managed to escape the storm mostly unscathed. Unfortunately, they managed to fly out almost directly in front of Zarkon’s ship. Voltron got caught in a Galra tractor beam, but Allura and Coran managed to take it out with the castle. The Paladins made a hasty retreat back to the castle.

“Why haven’t we wormholed yet?” Keith asked impatiently.

“We can’t! We don’t have enough scaultrite lenses!” Coran told them. “They’ve all gone kablooey!”

“Wait, did you say scaultrite?” Pidge asked. “I think Hunk made some terrible cookies out of that stuff earlier!”

Coran examined the cookies and determined they might work if people were holding them in place at just the right angles. 

As the beam bounced through the wormholer, Lance squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could. Not only did he not want to watch his own demise, but he was pretty sure this was going to look a lot like strobes. But something went wrong with the teleduv. Next thing Lance knew, Coran was skating through the teleduv, polishing the remaining lenses and the cookies with his slime.  By some miracle, it worked this time, and nobody died. The tension seeped out of Lance as they walked back to the control room to meet up with Allura.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the major epilepsy "fun fact" in this chapter:  
> Fevers can often trigger seizures, even in those without epilepsy, but it is more common in those with epilepsy. These are called febrile seizures. My first seizure as an infant was actually a febrile seizure, so I thought I'd work that in here a bit.  
> As always, check out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org for more information on epilepsy. This fic and even the facts after it are not a one-size-fits-all guide to epilepsy, this is mainly based off of my own personal experiences with some speculation about how Lance would be affected thrown in.


	6. Space Mall

**Chapter 6**

“Zarkon is clearly tracking us through me. I must leave, I’m putting you all in danger by staying,” Allura told them when they arrived at the control room.

“No way! That’s impossible! It can’t be true!” Hunk reassured her.

“Why wouldn’t it be true?” Allura pressed. “The Galra only found us on Arus after I awoke.”

Lance took one look at Allura’s face and knew she was serious about this. But Lance doubted her suspicions were true. He had to cheer her up somehow. “You know, she has a point,” Lance spoke up, as the others turned to stare at him incredulously. “I, for one, would absolutely travel across the galaxy to find you,” he finished with a flourish. 

“It’s not you, Allura,” Keith spoke up. “Zarkon’s tracking me.”

“Because…?” Hunk asked, clearly as lost in Keith’s reasoning as Lance was.

“I… I just think he must have started tracking me during our fight or something,” Keith floundered, and Lance frowned. 

“Look, the point is, we don’t know how Zarkon is tracking us,” Pidge interjected. “It could be through the Black Lion. Shiro’s had to fight him for control of it on more than one occasion.”

“That’s only when Zarkon’s nearby,” Coran pointed out. “No Paladin has ever been able to connect with a Lion over a vast distance before.”

“Look, it doesn’t matter how Zarkon’s tracking us, because we’re going to take the fight to him. They’ve been chasing us for too long. They won’t expect us to come after them.”

“The hunter becomes the hunted, right?” Lance asked, actually liking this plan for once. “That’s the tagline for like, six of my favorite movies,” he tells Keith.

“I’ve actually been working on a program,” Pidge explained and then dissolved into gibberish that Lance only half-understood. He glanced around and it was clear that nobody else quite understood either.

“So it’s what?” Lance asked. 

“It’s a Galra finder,” Hunk told them.

“It’s not quite a Galra finder,” Pidge started to explain, before noticing the lost looks of the team. “Fine, it’s a Galra finder,” the girl conceded.

“So, where are the Galra?” Keith asked.

Pidge pointed out the nearest Galra planet, and Shiro sent them off to bed, informing them that they’d be headed there tomorrow.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As they approached Taujeer the next day, Allura and Keith were nowhere to be found.

“Where are Allura and Keith?” Shiro asked Coran.

“It appears that one of the pods launched in the middle of the night,” Coran informed them.

“You don’t think they’re sitting in a tree, do you?” Lance asked, trying to lift the tension. 

“Contact the pod,” Shiro ordered Coran, ignoring Lance.

“Yes! Contact that pod!” Lance echoed, hoping that Allura and Keith would answer. He truly was  concerned for his friends, though he couldn’t show it right now.

“Princess! Keith! Where are you?” Coran called over the comms.

“Far away from the castle, as we should be,” Allura responded. 

“What?! Why?!” Shiro called, though Lance had a feeling he already knew.

“We must figure out if we’re the ones Zarkon is tracking,” Allura told them. Lance’s heart sank. For once, he hadn’t wanted to be right.

“They’re isolating the variable,” Pidge realized. “Or rather, in this case, two variables.”

“Pidge is right,” Allura tells them. “If Zarkon finds you despite our absence, we’ll know that we are not the ones Zarkon is tracking.”

“And if Zarkon finds us without you two?” Shiro questioned. “What do you expect us to do without the two of you? We can barely fight Zarkon with all seven of us. Splitting up only makes us weaker. Come back to the castle immediately.”  

“We can’t do that Shiro,” Allura told him.

“We have to know,” Keith chimed in. “If something happens, I can pilot us to safety. I can outrun him, Pidge added that booster rocket.”

“I thought I removed that after the Balmera incident,” Coran said. All of a sudden, the castle’s alarms started blaring.

“What’s going on?” Shiro asked.

“We’re in some sort of debris field!” Hunk told them.

“I think it’s coming from Taujeer!” Coran added. “No, wait. It  _ is _ Taujeer!”

“What’s going on Coran?” Allura asked.

“The planet is interfering with communications!” Coran informed the others.

“Move the castle away from the planet and reopen communications,” Shiro ordered. “The rest of you, get to your Lions.”

The four paladins steered their Lions towards Taujeer. As they approached, Hunk commented on the lack of Galra.

“I guess that fancy Galra tracker didn’t work after all, huh, Pidge?” Lance asked.

Then one of the Taujeerians told Shiro that the Galra has just destroyed their ship’s engines and left.

“So the Galra were here Lance!” Pidge smirked.

“We must get everyone off the planet before it dissolves completely! Please help us!” the Taujeerian begged. 

“How long do we have?” Shiro asked, just as chunks of the planet lifted into the air.

“Not long!” Hunk shouted.

“We’ve known for years that our planet would eventually lose its outer layer,” the Taujeerian explained.

“Like a snake?” Lance asked

“That’s not too bad,” Hunk said. “Beneath that old skin is a new healthy on, right?”

“Nope. I think the next layer is acid,” Pidge told them, as the planet bubbled. 

“The plan was to evacuate to the nearest moon to wait out the shedding process. So we built that ark over there. But then the Galra attacked and took away our only means of escape.” 

“You’re not stranded anymore, we’ll save your people.” Shiro assured him. 

“I am certain you will. But where is the fifth Paladin? I would feel more comfortable with all five Paladins,” The Taujeerian told Shiro.

“Duly noted. But I assure you, with or without the Red Paladin, we will save your people,” Shiro told the Taujeerian. “Pidge, hunk, take a look at the ark and see what we can do to fix it.”

“We’ll have it flying in no time,” Hunk assured Shiro. But then the supports of the ark fell off, leaving the body on the ground. “Would you settle for in one piece?” Hunk asked.

“Even if we can it back up, the repairs will still take time,” Pidge told them.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we kind of don’t have any,” Lance reminded her.

“We’ll have to figure out a way to make time. We need to stop the shedding,” Shiro told them.

“The planet is coming apart at the seams!” Pidge cried. “How do you suggest we stop that?!”

“By sewing it back together!” Hunk suggested.

“What does that mean?” Shiro asked.

“The Green Lion can cause plants to grow,” Hunk reminded them. “Maybe if Pidge aims it at the crack, the vines can act like stitches.”

“Won’t the stitches get dissolved by the acid?” Shiro asked.

“It will take longer if they’re frozen though!” Pidge pointed out.

“Ok then, let’s do this!” Shiro said. “Hunk and I will get the ark upright while you two buy us some time!”

“Got it!” Lance called. 

“It’s working!” Pidge cheered. 

“Keep going! It won’t last forever!” Shiro reminded her. Soon enough, they had the ark upright and were able to start working on repairs.

They got the ark repaired just in time, but then the Galra returned and attacked again.

“Hunk, stop the ark from falling into the acid! We’ll handle the ship!” Shiro called.

“Okay, but be quick! I don’t want to fall in anymore than they do!” Hunk called.

Lance felt a pang of fear for his best friend, knowing that Hunk had the most dangerous job, but he tried to focus on the task at hand. The quicker they handled the ship, the quicker they could help Hunk, Lance reminded himself. 

“Coran! We need you here now!” Shiro called.

“I’m on my way!” Coran responded.

As they were distracting the ship, Shiro spoke up. “They’re aiming their ion cannon at the ark! You guys, attack with your jaw blades!”

“Got it!” Lance called as he and Pidge dove into action, running along the sides of the ship.

Shiro attacked the ion cannon, causing it to miss the ark, but the laser sent rocks up into the air that started falling towards the ark. Hunk started panicking, and Lance dove towards his friend, blasting rocks out of the way, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Pidge doing the same. 

“We’ve got you buddy!” Lance told him, and he heard Hunk give a sigh of relief over the comms.

Soon after, the castle swooped in and started shooting at the Galra. But it still wasn’t enough.

“We’re being overwhelmed down here!” Lance shouted.

“We need Voltron!” Pidge stated the obvious.

“Okay, guys, the Red Lion sort of ran away…” Coran informed them.

“I don’t think I can hold it any longer!” Hunk said. 

“You have to! If you don’t the Taujeerians will die!” Shiro reminded him. A few seconds later, Hunk responded. 

“Okay. I can keep it from falling any farther, but I need help getting it back up!”

“On our way!” Shiro told him.

All four lions started pushing the ark. It was looking like this might be the end, but then Keith swooped in in the Red Lion, taking out the ion cannon and causing it to fall into the acid.

“Good to have you back Keith,” Shiro called.

“Is the princess with you?” Lance asked, hoping Allura was okay too.

“”Yeah, Lance,” Keith responded. “She’s here.”

“Like, with you, with you?” Lance frowned. He didn’t like Allura being on the front lines of this battle. He knew she could take of herself, but if she got hurt, they were going to be in trouble.

“A little help Keith?” Hunk called.

“On my way,” Keith responded. 

They quickly finished pushing the ark and then formed Voltron.

The Galra ship started heading for the ark, and Voltron went to intercept with the sword. But this wasn’t going to work. The sword was too small.

“Guys, my Lion is telling me to try something.” Keith called.

Suddenly, Blue’s presence intensified. “I feel it too!” Lance called.

Pidge and Hunk voiced their agreement. They all activated the new weapon, and Voltron’s sword grew bigger. It easily cut through the cruiser, and Lance felt elation sweep through as everyone celebrated. Lance loved experiencing victories as Voltron. It was literally five times better this way. 

After the short celebration, they carried the ark to the nearest moon, then boarded the castle again.

“We never should have left,” Allura admitted as they discussed the mission. “I’m sorry.”

“Well at least we know that Zarkon’s not tracking us through you two,” Lance reassured her.

“Yeah, and I learned that my Lion can grow armor and extend its claws! Ching!” Hunk chimed in, ruining the serious moment. 

“The fact that the Red Lion came to help Keith from so far away is important too,” Shiro pointed out. “A Lion and a Paladin  _ can _ connect over great distances. Which means that Zarkon must be tracking us through Black. We have to find some way to stop him”

“And how can we do that?” Pidge asked.

“Two paladins have never fought for the same Lion before,” Allura informed them

“I’m just going to have to forge a new bond with my Lion,” Shiro resolved. “One that’s stronger than his.”

“In the meantime, the rest of us need to find some new teleduv lenses,” Coran announced.

“How are we gonna get those? Mail order?” Hunk asked.

“Do people even make them anymore?” Keith asked.

“Only a few Alteans were capable of operating teleduvs 10,000 years ago,” Allura told them. “They may not exist now.”

“I may know a place where we can get some,” Coran told them.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next thing Lance knew, they were headed to what coran called a “swap moon”, dressing in ridiculous disguises that reminded him of something that wouldn’t be amiss at an anime convention, but definitely stuck out like a sore thumb once they got there. The second Croan left them, they ditched the costumes in the trash, splitting up to browse the mall. Lance knew they were supposed to be searching for teleduv lenses, but he couldn’t help but stop and look at every store he passed. How many chances were they going to get to explore a space mall? He might as well make the most of it.

Eventually, he came across a store called Terra. He peered into it, and realized it was an earth store. He wandered inside. It reminded him of a store in his hometown, actually. It had all sorts of old Earth stuff in it, some of this stuff he hadn’t seen since he was little, and others he was pretty sure his  _ parents _ hadn’t seen since  _ they _ were little. But Lance was painfully aware that he didn’t have any money on him. He didn’t know how he could possibly get anything from here. But he wanted to  _ so _ badly.

“Can I interest you in the latest Earth fashions?” the shopkeeper, who looked like every stereotypical movie alien ever, asked, and Lance had to stop himself from snorting. The few clothes in the store were things he was pretty sure he recognized from photos of his great-grandparents. 

“Lance! There you are!” Pidge called as he made his way back to the front of the shop, still browsing. “We have to be back at the ticking clock in a half hour.”

“But look at all this crazy Earth stuff this guy is selling!” Lance pointed out.

“We’re supposed to be focusing on the teleduv lenses, and you’re looking in the  _ one _ store we know won’t have-” Pidge cut herself off as she finally noticed one of the displays. “Is that  _ Killbot Phatasm I _ ? The first  _ Journey to the Depths of Demonsphere _ ?” Pidge freaked out. “And the original Mercury Gameflux II? With the original power glove with the infinite lives glitch? We  _ have _ to get this!” she ranted.

“I’ll help you try to get the Gameflux II if you want,” Lance offered. “But only if you promise to share, got it? And we have to get another game too.” Lance wasn’t sure if he was photosensitive or not, but the series Pidge wanted included the only game he’d ever had a seizure during. He didn’t want to chance it. But he was fine sharing the game system if it meant he’d get a little piece of Earth back. 

“Got it!” Pidge turned to the shopkeeper. “How much is this?”

“1200 GAC, 1250 for the extra game.” the shopkeeper informed them.

“Come on Lance! Let’s go find some money!” Pidge dragged him off. “Don’t sell that!” she ordered the shopkeeper. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pidge’s idea of finding money was apparently digging through every fountain in the mall for enough change. “This tenner looks like the last one,” Pidge groaned. “How much do we have?” 

“1196 GAC,” Lance informed her.

“We’re so close!” Pidge whined.

“We still need 54 more GAC,” Lance reminded her. 

“Only 4 if we only buy one game!” Pidge pointed out. 

“If we only buy one, I’m picking,” Lance told her firmly.

“But why?” Pidge whined. “What do you even have against  _ Killbot Phantasm I _ ?”

“I don’t trust that game not to give me seizures!” Lance informed her. Pidge deflated. 

“Okay. Good reason. You get to choose the game,” Pidge conceded. 

Just then, someone came up and threw a coin into the fountain. “Lance look!” Pidge cried excitedly. 

“Got it!” Lance ran for the coin, and jumped like a dolphin, catching it in his teeth. He pocketed the coin and the two immediately started dashing back to the Earth store. They purchased the Gameflux and a Lance-friendly game, and as they exited the store, the shopkeeper stopped them. 

“Every purchase comes with a free Kaltenecker,” the shopkeeper informed them, handing them the leash to the cow that had been chilling in the shop the whole time. At that moment, Hunk came racing by.

“Gotta run guys!” he called out to them.

“Security’s on our tail!” Keith informed them, close behind Hunk.

“Quick, everybody on my Kaltenecker!” Lance called as they dashed towards the edge of the floor.

“Did you guys seriously buy a cow?” Hunk asked.

“It was free with purchase!” Pidge explained.

Lance steered Kaltenecker through the mall, weaving to avoid the mall cop. They picked up Coran on the way out, and luckily managed to escape the mall cop. Unluckily, Lance hit his head on the door on the way out. 

“You okay buddy?” Hunk asked, helping Lance back onto the cow.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, Lance waved his friend off, before pulling his hand away from his head. 

“Umm...Lance?” Pidge hesitated. “You’re bleeding. You sure you’re okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” Lance nodded. It had jarred him a little, but he really hadn’t hit his head  _ that _ hard. He’d probably just hit it at just the right angle. But his friends still looked nervous. 

“Look, If you don’t believe me, you guys can rig me up to an EEG all night,” Lance promised with a sigh, knowing that it was probably easiest to just give in before they even suggested it.

“We can probably set up an ambulatory one with the mind meld rigs,” Hunk mused. 

“Ugh. Gross. I’d rather just sleep in the med bay,” Lance protested.

“Oh come on, It’s not like it’d even look that bad,” Pidge pointed out. “Plus, it’s probably  _ less _ gross than all of the gunk that comes with a normal EEG.”

“You have a point,” Lance conceded. Hunk and Pidge stared at him.” Fine,” he groaned. “You guys can set something up with the mind meld rigs.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, epilepsy "fun facts" of the chapter:  
> Photosensitive epilepsy- This is when seizures are triggered by things such as strobe lights. Many video games can trigger photosensitive epilepsy, which is why you'll notice epilepsy warnings on all video games. Not everybody with epilepsy has photosensitive epilepsy, and photosensitivity, like epilepsy itself, is not a "one-size-fits-all" situation. I'm like Lance, where I don't know if I'm photosensitive or not, but I know I can handle at least a certain small intensity and duration of strobes. (I had a seizure watching my brother play a Zelda game once, but that was during the period where my seizures weren't under control so I'm not sure if that was a trigger or just coincidence. I play it safe and assume the former)  
> Ambulatory EEGs- The term sounds a little scary at first if you don't know what it means, but it's just basically a portable EEG. The machine goes in a backpack that you carry around with you, and you have basically a literal stocking cap on your head to keep the wires from getting tangled.  
> As always, if you're interested in learning more about epilepsy, check out :  
> www.epilepsy.com  
> or  
> www.talkaboutit.org


	7. Keith is Galra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short, and I apologize, but I should have chapter 8 up tomorrow hopefully, I just need it beta'd. I wrote both chapters intending for the whole thing to be one chapter, but it was a bit too long so I split it.

**Chapter 7**

The next day, they headed to the Blade of Marmora headquarters. Lance’s EEG had looked normal the night before, so the others were less tense now. Lance was actually kind of glad he’d allowed them to set up an ambulatory EEG. Without the sock on his head, it really didn’t look bad. And he hadn’t had to wash all the gunk and marker from a normal EEG out of his hair this morning, so that was always a plus.

As they approached the Blade of Marmora headquarters, Lance let himself bask in the casual conversation and playful bickering around him. It wasn’t often they could let themselves be calm, and yesterday things had been too busy to appreciate it.

But then they spotted the headquarters, and everybody got tense again. 

“This is going to be a bit more difficult than we thought,” Coran informed them. 

“Is that a black hole?” Hunk asked.

“Of course not!” Coran scoffed. “It’s  _ two _ black holes! And a giant blue star.”

“That’s not better,” Hunk pointed out. 

“No kidding!” Pidge said. “Just inside a black hole, the temperature is basically absolute zero. But just  _ outside _ it, it’s hundreds of millions of degrees celsius.”

“Coran, where’s the base located?” Keith asked.

“It’s in between all three of them,”Coran informed them gravely.

“It’s the perfect defensive position!” Pidge pointed out.

“Or a perfect trap,” Allura argued.

“I’m with the princess on this one. Let’s not go there,” Hunk interjected.

“We have to go in!” Keith yelled. “There’s no other option!” 

“Jeez, calm down,” Lance told him. 

“Identify yourself” a female-sounding robotic voice told them.

“We are the Paladins of Voltron, sent here by Ulaz,” Shiro replied.

“Two may enter. Come unarmed,” the voice said, before disconnecting.

“Why would they request we come unarmed?” Allura asked. “This doesn’t feel right.”

“We can’t turn back now,” Shiro stated. 

“They’ve sent us a path,” Coran told them. “It’ll only be open for another varga, though, and then it will close for two quintants.”

Normally, Lance would have volunteered to take Blue on the mission. But he still wasn’t sure how well she could regulate her temperature. And hundreds of millions degrees celsius was  guaranteed to trigger a seizure, assuming it didn’t do anything worse. So he was actually relieved when Shiro announced he was taking Keith with him.

“You’ll have to be incredibly careful,” Coran informed them. “It’s a razor’s edge between being burnt to a crisp or being crushed into infinity.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As they waited for Shiro and Keith, Pidge and Hunk decided to see if they could build something to allow them to play the Gameflux. Lance sat with them as they worked, a comfortable silence falling over the group as Lance did some basic maintenance on his bayard. It reminded Lance of their study sessions at the Garrison. They’d never really needed words between the three of them, just the presence of the others was enough to steady them all. And with their friends going off into the unknown, this was exactly what the three needed to be doing. The quiet murmur of Pidge and Hunk discussing plans and coding washed over Lance pleasantly. And every now and then, one of them would press closer to the others, steadying each other’s nerves through the contact.  Before they knew it, three vargas had passed. They took a break to sneak off to the kitchens for some food goo, before they rejoined Allura and Coran in the control room.

The silence in the control room was nothing like the silence in Pidge’s workshop had been. It was heavy and burdensome, and it was unnerving how little the presence of the others did to help. Lance slowly drifted away from Hunk and Pidge, and noticed them doing the same. This way, at least the feeling in the room didn’t feel as disorienting. None of them dared to break the silence, though.

Vargas crawled by like this, the tension only being broken by necessary comments here and there. Tension radiated off of Allura especially. Lance knew she didn’t trust the Blade of Marmora at all, but this seemed like more than just that. Usually she was willing to trust any possible allies until they were proven guilty, but she was handling this the opposite way. Lance wanted to question her, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t end well. So he kept his mouth shut.

“How long has it been?” Allura finally asked, breaking the silence, but not the tension.

“Roughly ten vargas,” Coran informed them.

“We can’t just wait here,” Allura said, clearly agitated.

“The path won’t be open for another 30 vargas or something, though,” Lance pointed out. 

“Lance is actually correct,” Coran stated.

“Of course I’m right!” Lance said. “I wasn’t born yester-quintant!”

“I have to check on them,” Allura said uneasily.

“We can’t. There’s too much interference from the solar flares and the black holes,” Pidge pointed out. 

“If we account for the gravitational lensing, maybe we can reduce the interference, and connect with the Red Lion,” Hunk suggested. “That’s right, right?” He glanced to Lance for confirmation.

“Are you looking at me?” Lance asked Hunk. Lance appreciated that Hunk thought so highly of him, but engineering wasn’t exactly Lance’s area of expertise. He’d kind of daydreamed his way through the basic engineering classes the Garrison made everyone take, figuring they’d never be useful to him. 

“We can give it a try,” Coran confirmed.

“Get on it then,” Allura ordered.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once they’d managed to lock onto the Red Lion’s sensors, the tension was halved. It was still there, but Lance was able to start up some small conversations with Hunk. Pidge even chimed in now and then with her own comments. It looked like they were going to be in the clear. But then Allura spoke up. 

“The Red Lion’s on the move!”

“We’ve gotta get down there!” Lance freaked out. As much as he didn’t want to take the chances of getting hurt himself, he was well aware that the Red Lion would only be moving if Keith, and by extension, Shiro, were in danger. And if there was one thing Lance couldn’t stand for, it was his friends getting hurt.

“It won’t be ready for another five minutes!” Hunk told them. 

Lance ran over to his battle station, hoping to get a better idea of what was going on with his friends.

“The Red Lion is attacking!” Coran announced. Lance’s heart seized in his throat. The Red Lion moving was bad enough. The Red Lion attacking meant that something was  _ seriously  _ wrong.

“How much longer until we can go down there?” Allura asked.

“Just a few more ticks,” Coran informed them.

“Get ready,” Allura ordered.

Coran started a countdown, and just as Coran reached one, Shiro contacted them. “Allura. We’re alright. We’re coming back. And we’re bringing someone you should meet.”

Lance let the tension drain out of his body. They were alright. Lance could relax now.

Shiro and Keith boarded with a Galra, who kneeled before Allura. “Princess Allura. It’s good to see that you are still alive after all these years,” he told her.

“Yes, well, so is Zarkon,” Allura pointed out. “Can we trust that you are on our side in the fight against him?”

“Yes, but we don’t have much time to discuss this. I just received word from our double-agent that our presence has been discovered, so we must move our time table up,” the Galra informed them.

“How soon do we need to start?” Shiro asked.

“Now,” The Galra replied.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As they started working on a plan, Keith interrupted. “There’s something I think you all need to know,” he started. “We agreed no secrets between us, so you should all know. The Blades of Marmora told me earlier… I’m part Galra.” He refused to look anyone in the eye, especially Allura. Lance couldn’t blame him.

“Are you certain?” Allura pressed. “They could have been lying to you.”

“They wouldn’t have had a reason to lie,” Shiro shook his head. “I was there.”

“So, how did they even figure it out anyway?” Lance asked, confused. “I mean, it’s not like you  _ look _ Galra.”

“It was my knife,” Keith explained. “Apparently, it can turn into a sword too, but it only works if you have Galra blood.”

“So now you can have double swords in fights?” Lance asked. “Awesome!” 

“It’s not awesome!” Keith spluttered. “Did you not just hear the whole ‘I’m part Galra’ thing?!”

“I heard,” Lance scoffed. “But the sword thing is  _ way _ more important.” Lance ignored the by now fuming Allura. “I mean, it’s not like you haven’t been been part Galra this whole time,” he shrugged. “That part changes literally nothing. But the sword thing is new.”

“I agree with Lance on this one,” Pidge said. “If you being part Galra was going to a problem, it would’ve already caused an issue by now.”

“I mean, I’m cool with Keith being Galra and all, but what if the Galra part of him only shows once he knows? Kind of like a ‘don’t feed the gremlins after midnight’ thing?” Hunk chimed in. 

“Then we’ll deal with it as it comes,” Shiro told them. “But this doesn’t make you any less part of the team Keith. It just means we know something new about you.”

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So no new "fun facts" this chapter. But as always, if you want to learn more about epilepsy, please check out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org


	8. Beta Traz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new full length chapter today, as promised! Sorry for the short chapter yesterday again, but This chapter really worked better on its own.

**Chapter 8**

A few vargas later, they had come up with a plan. “I think we’ve got something here,” Shiro mused. “It’s risky, and has a lot of moving parts, but I think we can make it work.”

“If we can pull it off, then Zarkon’s reign will finally come to an end,” the Galra said. “You’ve done it Shiro.”

“ _ We _ did it,” Shiro beamed shaking the Galra’s hand.

“If we all stick to the plan, it should work,” Allura said, mistrust for the Blade clear in her voice.

“It will work,” the Galra said. “And maybe then you’ll figure out that not all Galra are as bad as Zarkon.” 

“I hope you’re right,” Allura said, staring at Keith. 

“So, what’s the plan?” Hunk interrupted, cutting the tension a bit. 

“The plan. Is. Awesome!” Lance jumped up to explain, hoping to relieve the rest of the tension in the room. “First, we infect Zarkon’s ship with a virus! Then! We’re gonna make an extra large wormhole and zap Zarkon thousands of lightyears away! Then, when he pops out the other side, Voltron will kick his butt! And we’ll have won for all time!”

“So this is really it, huh?” Hunk mused.

“So when do we strike?” Pidge asked seriously.

“As soon as we can build a teleduv big enough to wormhole Zarkon’s ship,” Coran replied.

“Does that mean we’re gonna need more scaultrite?” Hunk asked.

“That’s not the only thing we’ll need,” Allura informed them.

“Are we going back to the space mall then?” Hunk asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Coran replied. “This is going to take a lot more scaultrite than we can find in any Unilu shop. For this plan to work, we’re going to have to split up.” Lance silently hoped he got paired with Hunk. He liked the rest of his team, don’t get him wrong, but it would be nice to go on a mission with just Hunk for once.

“Keith, Hunk, you’ll be in charge of getting the scaultrite,” Coran announced, and Lance’s heart sank. 

They sent Hunk and Keith off, and then Lance, Shiro, and Pidge were sent to go save some genius prisoner from the Galra to help design the teleduv.  

Lance flew to the coordinates he was given, readying Blue. “Okay guys, ready to fire,” he announced.

“Be careful Lance, you’ve only got one shot. You have to hit this,” Pidge told him.

“Don’t worry. I’m the sharpshooter, remember?” Lance told her. “That’s my thing.” 

“Since when?!” Pidge yelled back. Lance’s heart plummeted. He’d thought that being the sharpshooter was his place on the team, but if Pidge was right and it wasn’t… he shook his head. 

“Just get ready!” Lance told her.  Shiro and Pidge exited their lions and headed for the prison, grappling themselves in, just as they planned. Lance waited in Blue, waiting for Pidge’s signal.

“We’re in. Initiating phase two. Lance, you’ve got four dobashes to scan the base and land your Lion.”

“Copy that.” Lance replied. He immediately scanned the base and uploaded the data for Pidge to see.

“Perfect,” Pidge told him. “You have sixty ticks to get to my position. Hurry.” 

“On my way,” Lance confirmed, steering the Blue Lion into the hangar to meet with the others. 

“Phase two complete,” Shiro smiled. “Welcome to Beta Traz.” 

Lance watched and listened attentively as Pidge explained the layout of the prison. 

“That’s odd,” Pidge mused. “There’s two cells. The Blade said there would only be  _ one _ prisoner. Why would they need another prisoner?”

“Maybe it’s a space ninja,” Lance spoke up, not liking the tension in Pidge’s voice. “Or someone with magic powers. Who knows? Maybe it’s a magical space ninja.”

“Can you get a visual on the cells?” Shiro turned to Pidge, clearly exasperated with Lance. That… hadn’t worked as well as he’d hoped.

“I can’t,” Pidge shook her head grimly. “And even if I  _ could _ we don’t know what Slav looks like. We’ll just have to check both.”

“Dibs on the closer one!” Lance chimed in. Maybe it would work this time…? Judging from the looks Pidge and Shiro gave him, it didn’t. “What? My legs are tired,” he shrugged. It was the only excuse he could come up with in time.

“I’ll try to access the security system from the command center,” Pidge told them, and then they split up. Shiro and Lance started off together. They headed down the hallway in silence until they came across the first group of guards. They stayed hidden there and waited for Pidge’s instruction.

“I’m in,” Pidge’s voice rang over the comms. “The top level appears to be guarded by the sentries. The second level is patrolled by floating drones, and… huh, that’s interesting,” Pidge cut off. 

“Good interesting?” Lance asked, reminding Pidge that they were still there.

“The second level also has immobilizing foam,” Pidge told them.

“Oh, so bad interesting,” Lance grimaced. 

“And the third level?’ Shiro asked. 

“I don’t know,” Pidge admitted. “I can’t get in from here.”

“You can’t get in from the command center?” Shiro asked in confusion. 

“No one location can access everything. It’s a security measure,” Pidge told them. “You’re going to have to patch me in yourselves when you reach that level.”

“We’re on our way down,” Shiro told Pidge as they left their cover.

Soon after, they ran into a guard. “How are we gonna get by him?” Lance asked, looking around for something they could use to distract the sentry. Shiro rocketed out there instead and took it out with his Galra arm. “That ...works too,” Lance said. 

As they dashed past the sentry and onto the second floor, a floating drone came out and spotted them. 

“We’ve been spotted,” Shiro announced as Lance prepared to pull out his Bayard.

“No wait! Thats mine!” Pidge told them. Lance let himself relax but didn’t take his hand of his bayard. He was still wary of even Pidge-controlled drones after the whole Rover incident.  “He’s gonna be your escort through this hallway. He’ll scramble the monitors.” Thanks to the help of the drone, they got through the second floor easily. 

“Okay, Shiro, go left. Lance, you go right,” Pidge ordered. Lance hastily followed instructions. “Now open the panel next to you, and connect your gauntlets so I can hack in.” Lance did as he was told and waited. “Ok, I’m in,” Pidge told them. “I can get you guys down to the third floor now.” Lance pulled away and dashed through the door to the next floor.  He almost immediately came to a halt, staring up at the giant doors in front of him.

“Umm… Pidge.. How am I going to get through these giant doors?” Lance asked.

“Lance, be quiet!” Pidge told him .”Someone’s coming.” 

Lance looked around frantically or a hiding spot. The whole place was wide open, but then his eyes locked on a ledge. He internally groaned. His neurologist was going to kill him for even  _ thinking _ of doing this, but between dying now and dying later, he’d definitely choose dying later. He scrambled towards the ledge and used his jetpack to get him up there, and pressed himself as close to the wall as possible.

“Seriously though, those are some heavy duty doors, any ideas?” Lance hissed into his comms.

Pidge wasn’t responding, so Lance chanced a look at the guy down below. He seemed to be opening the door using his face.

“Open the doors Pidge, I’m at the cell,” Shiro ordered over the comms.

“I can’t, it won’t let me in,” Pidge said.

“The guy at my door just scanned his face,” Lance whispered. 

“Oh, facial recognition,” Pidge groaned. “Shiro, sit tight, Lance, get me a scan of that guy’s face.”

“Got it,” Lance and Shiro said in unison. Lance leaned out as far as he dared and took a picture of the guy’s face. The guy glanced up and almost noticed Lance, but kept on walking. Lance left out a sigh of relief. “Face on the way, Pidge,” Lance told her.

“Got it. Making a 3-D render...and… got it. Sending it back to you,” Pidge told them.

Lance eased himself down from the wall using his jetpack and walked over to cell. He scanned the render and the doors unlocked. Lance peered into the room, and when the coast seemed clear, he somersaulted in. Lance stared around the room, and noticed a big, monster-like creature in the middle of the room, gnawing on a dismembered sentry arm. . 

“Are you-” Lance squeaked in fear. He coughed, trying to compose himself. “Are you Slav?” he asked again, proud of how steady his voice was this time.

“Yup,” the creature said, turning to face Lance. Now that he could see the face of the creature, Lance relaxed slightly. It reminded him of his dog back home. 

“I’m here to rescue you, I’m with Voltron,” Lance told the alien. “You  _ have _ heard of Voltron, right?” Lance asked. 

“Yup,” Slav replied. 

“Great, then you know we’re the good guys!” Lance cheered. “Pidge, I’ve got Slav!” Lance said, hearing the same words come through from Shiro.

“Wait, what?” Pidge asked. 

“I’ve got Slav,” Shiro repeated. 

“No you don’t,  _ I _ have Slav,” Lance protested. “You  _ are _ Slav, right?” Lance asked the creature next him. “Tell me the truth.”

“Yup,” Slav told him.

“We don’t have time for this!” Pidge groaned. “Just, bring both of them back.”

“Gotcha,” Lance said.

“Lead us out Pidge,” Shiro ordered. 

“We’re ready too,” Lance agreed. They got nothing but radio silence in response.

“Hello?” Lance called.

“Pidge!” Shiro called over the comms. 

Still, nothing but radio silence. 

“We’re gonna have to get out of here ourselves and find Pidge,” Shiro told Lance. 

Lance was afraid for Pidge, and knew they had to find her and get her out, but there was one problem… “I don’t know where I’m going!” Lance panicked. “Do you know where we’re going Slav?” 

“Yup,” Slav replied.

“Of course you do!” Lance beamed. “You’re a genius! Lead the way!” As they wandered, Lance became less and less convinced that Slav knew where they were going. Finally, he spoke up.

“Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Lance asked.

“Yup,” Slav told him. 

At that moment, a Galra droid came out. Lance prepared to shoot, but before he could get a shot off, Slav tore the thing apart. 

“Whoa… you’re  _ savage, _ ” Lance said, in awe. “No wonder the Marmorites think you’re so awesome!” Lance smiled. “I’m calling the Blade of Marmora Marmorites now. What do you think? Sound good?”

“Yup,” Slav responded, looking up from the drone. 

“Great minds,” Lance said.

“Yep,” Slav responded, causing Lance’s smile to grow wider.  At least  _ someone _ appreciated Lance. As they continued down the hall, Lance struck up a conversation with Slav,.

“You’ll love the others,” Lance told Slav. “There’s Pidge, she’s our awesome hacker. And Shiro’s our leader. His does this cool thing with his arm, where he heats it up and just  _ wrecks _ our enemies.”

“Yup,” Slav acknowledged.

“And Hunk is our chef, our mechanic, and all around just a pretty cool guy to hang out with.” The thought of his best friend brought a smile to Lance’s face. 

“Yup,” Slav acknowledged again, causing Lance’s smile to grow bigger.

“Then there’s Keith. He always doing these risky things like flying into asteroids and stuff, but he makes it work. It’s actually pretty cool,” Lance continued.

“Yup,” Slav agreed. 

“And I thought I was the sharpshooter!” Lance continued. His smile dropped. “But I guess nobody else thinks that.” Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure even Hunk noticed his efforts. And If Hunk thought he was holding back the team… well everyone else probably did too. “Maybe I don’t have a thing,” Lance said. After all, even his attempts at relieving the tension had fallen flat lately. He was pretty sure Shiro was more put out by his antics than amused, and Pidge had been flat out annoyed by him even  _ suggesting _ he was the team’s sharpshooter earlier. 

“Yup,” Slav agreed.

“You don’t have to agree like that!” Lance told him. “I mean, they wouldn’t keep me on the team if I were holding them back, would they?” Lance was fairly certain that Keith would have demanded that Lance be kicked off the team by now if he thought he wasn’t contributing, and Shiro and Allura probably would’ve given in. 

“Yup,” Slav said. 

Lance thought about it. Were they keeping him on the team out of pity? After that speech Shiro had given when Lance told them about his epilepsy, maybe they felt they  _ couldn’t _ kick him off the team. Was Lance causing the team more trouble than he was worth? 

“Maybe you’re right,” Lance realized. “Maybe I’m just the fifth wheel. Seventh if you count Coran and Allura. That’s a horrible wheel to be.”

“Yup,” Slav agreed sadly.

Suddenly, Pidge picked back up on the comms again. “Sorry Shiro, I’m back. I’m pulling up an alternate route.”

“Can you tell me where I am?” Lance asked, wincing as he did so. What if Pidge thought he was useless? Wouldn’t this just be showing her that she was right?

“Pulling it up now,” Pidge said. 

Lance listened as Pidge addressed Shiro first. “Shiro, there is no alternate route.”  Suddenly, panic entered her voice. “Lance! Look out!” 

Lance immediately hid, but Slav remained out in the open. 

“What is wrong with you?” Lance hissed. “Are you trying to get us caught?!”

“Yup,” Slav replied, leaving Lance dumbfounded.

“I found you!” the guy from earlier said, his face lighting up as he walked toward Slav.  Lance looked back and forth frantically. He made his decision.

“Stay away from my friend,” Lance ordered, darting out in front of Slav and aiming his blaster.

“There’s your kidnapper!” the guy growled. “Put the prison on lockdown!”

Lance started firing away at the guy, providing cover fire as Slav dashed down the hallway. His opponent had giant metal arms he could activate as shields, apparently though, so his blasts didn’t do much . Lance charged after Slav down the hallway, hoping to at least keep the attention n himself for long enough to let his new friend escape.

Slav dodged the foam easily, but even with his shield, Lance was struggling. “Pidge, I need you to turn off this foam” Lance called frantically.

“Got it,” Pidge said.

Lance figured the foam would stop almost immediately, so when more than 30 ticks had passed and nothing had changed, he called out again. “Pidge! I really need this turned off!”

“Sorry!” Pidge called back. “Just let me reverse the targeting system!” Lance was relieved when the foam was sent at the prison keeper instead of him.

“No!” he called. 

Lance dashed away from him. 

“Come back here!” Lance heard. 

“Pidge, anyway we can turn the gravity off?” Shiro asked through the comms.

“Great idea!” Pidge called. “We have our jetpacks, so we’ll be fine, but the sentries won’t be able to maneuver properly! It’s genius!”

The gravity was turned off and Lance grabbed onto Slav and propelled them down the hallway. Soon, they met up with Shiro and his “Slav”.

“Oh, wow, you have Laika!” “Slav” said. “The warden will not be happy about that!”

“Who’s Laika?” Lance asked, confused. 

“She’s the warden’s pet yupper!” “Slav”, or Lance supposed he should take out the airquotes in his head, informed him.

“Wait! You’re an animal?!” Lance asked Laika.

“Yup!” she responded. 

“I see where the confusion was for you!” Slav said, and Lance’s heart sank. Great. Now even the prisoner they were sent to rescue thought he was an idiot. At least Laika had seemed to think he was smart, even if he  _ was _ useless.

“Gravity’s back in 3...2...1!” Pidge called, and they lowered their companions to the floor. “I’m headed for the hangar!” Pidge informed them. 

When they reached the hangar, they found it full of Galra sentries, who immediately began shooting. Laika dodged easily, while Slav panicked.Lance and Shiro immediately raised their shields, and Lance started taking out the sentries with his blaster. There was only one more sentry to take out, and Lance had it in his sights, when Shiro swooped down and took it out. 

“I had him!” Lance complained. Did Shiro seriously not trust him to take out the last sentry?

“Let’s go,” Shiro announced. “Slav?”

Suddenly, the warden caught up and attacked. “Slav!” the warden growled. “You steal my yupper  _ and _ my prisoner?” Suddenly, the guy got even more buff and attacked.

“I’m ready to go!” Pidge came running into the room.

“You’re not going anywhere,” the warden growled. “And neither is the Lion!” 

Shiro attacked and got knocked back into the wall. Lance started shooting, but he wasn’t even able to make a dent before the warden clutched him in his fist.

“Lance! No!” Pidge called, attacking and trying to get him back. Lance struggled, hoping that Shiro and Pidge wouldn’t have to get him out of this mess, but it was useless. Soon, the warden also had Pidge in his grasp, and he flung both of them at Shiro. But then alarms started blaring as the hangar doors were opened.

They all began to float out, but the Warden managed to stay inside, holding on to Laika. Slav was further back in the room though, and the warden managed to catch him as well.

“No!” Shiro called. If they didn’t get Slav, this mission would be worthless.

“I’ve got this!” Lance called. He took a deep breath and shot past Slav at the warden’s elbow, hitting his mark, and causing the warden to release him.

“Nice Lance!’ Shiro cheered. “That’s why we bring our sharpshooter.

Lance’s heart lifted. Maybe he  _ was _ useful after all… “Yup,” he replied, with a goofy grin on his face. They piled into the Blue Lion and Lance started piloting them home,  grimacing as Slav poked at everything around him.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, not really any new "fun facts" this chapter besides Lance in this is NOT a good role model for people with epilepsy in terms of staying safe and has now officially broken 99% of the safety rules. No untethered heights, Lance! (This is just for obvious reasons. If you have a seizure and fall... yeah, not pretty).  
> As always, if you want to learn more about epilepsy, check out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org


	9. The Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. I had a lot of stuff to do to get ready to go back to school, but now that I'm settled in, I should hopefully be able to update more frequently.

**Chapter 9**

“Okay, so what do we do now?” Lance asked.

“We should contact Allura and let her know we’ve got Slav and are ready for her to use the teleduv,” Pidge suggested.

“Nobody told me we were travelling by teleduv!” Slav squealed. 

Shiro exploded. “What’s the problem? We’re travelling by teleduv, so just do whatever stupid little thing you need to do to make sure we survive the wormhole in this reality!” 

Lance blinked up at Shiro. He’d never seen him lose his cool like that before. 

“I was just going to say that it’s a very efficient way to travel,” Slav said.

Allura called. “Paladins, we need you to come back immediately! The monster we fought on the Balmera is back!”

“What?!” They all freaked out at this.

“Don’t worry Princess, Sharpshooter is on the way,” Lance grinned, thinking back to Shiro’s earlier compliment.

“Sharpshooter?” Pidge questioned. Lance’s heart sunk. Was he not the sharpshooter after all?

“It’s my new nickname,” Lance brushed it off. “That I gave myself. Spread it around.” They passed through the wormhole to the castle, and were immediately shot at by the robeast.

“How is that thing even operational?” Lance questioned. “It doesn’t even have a head!”

“I don’t know, but it probably has something to do with those crystals,” Pidge pointed out. 

“We should be worrying about protecting the castle,” Shiro pointed out as Slav panicked.

“How did we defeat it last time?” Keith asked.

“We shot it in it’s laser arms as Voltron,” Hunk said. “But… that didn’t work,” he remembered. “So then we just punched it.”

“We’re gonna need Voltron,” Shiro agreed.

“But we only have two lions,” Pidge pointed out. The mood was growing darker, and while Lance knew it was justified, he also knew it shouldn’t stay that way.

“We could form just the legs and kick it!” Lance suggested, getting groans in response from the rest of the team. But the dark mood had lifted a bit, so Lance smiled proudly. The attacks didn’t relent though.

“That laser is definitely stronger than last time,” Shiro pointed out. “We’re gonna need the other lions. Lance, take me and Pidge back to the castle. Hunk, cover for us, and then take Keith back for Red once we’re out.” 

“Wait, you’re gonna make me fight that thing alone?” Hunk asked.

“Of course not!” Pidge said. “You have Keith!”

“Yeah, umm… I don’t know if you guys noticed, but he’s kind of in here with me,” Hunk pointed out.

“We’ve gotta do this now!” Shiro said. “We don’t have time to figure out a better plan!”

“Oh, quiznak,” Hunk reluctantly started to distract the robeast. 

Lance booked it back to the castle, not wanting Hunk to be fighting a second longer than he had to be. 

“The crystals are blocking our attacks!” Hunk called through the comms as a laser hit the castle, bringing down the particle barrier. Lance landed Blue in the hangar and everyone else dashed into the castle. “Lance, get back out there and give Hunk cover. Pidge and I will meet up with you.” 

“Got it!” Lance replied, heading out immediately. He dove back into the battle, coming as close to the robeast as possible without getting shot.

“I’ll cover you guys! Go get the Red Lion!” Lance told Hunk.

“Thanks Lance!” Hunk called back, heading back towards the castle only to get caught in the robeast’s line of fire. The screams of his friends echoed through the comms as the Yellow Lion plummeted, and Lance’s heart felt like it was following them.

“Guys! Are you okay?!” Lance called.

“Hunk! Do something!” Lance heard Keith say, and let out a sigh of relief. They were alive at least. There was still a chance to save them. Lance saw the Black and Green Lions approaching out of the corner of his vision, and knew he could trust them to save Hunk and Keith. He turned his attention back to the robeast and aimed some shots at it from behind. It still wasn’t enough though, and the robeast seemed to realize that it needed to keep the paladins in front of it. Soon enough, Pidge joined him, and they focused in on a full frontal attack.

“We need to take out that crystal! I’m getting sick and tired of it!” Lance said. 

“On it!” Pidge agreed, as they both landed on the crystal, ready to shatter it. But the robeast separated the crystal and smashed it back together, sending Lance and Pidge flying. It started to head for the castle, and Lance’s heart sank. There was no way he was going to be able to get back into the fight before that thing reached the castle.

“Shiro! It’s headed for the castle!” Pidge warned over the coms.

“I’ve got it!” Shiro called, dropping Hunk and letting him float as he raced to intercept the robeast.

He rushed at the robeast with his lion’s jaw blade, but to no avail. Lance started shooting at the robeast, and it turned to him, as Pidge joined in. 

“We’ll distract it for you Shiro!” Pdge called. “Attack it from behind!” As Shiro tried to attack though, the robeast noticed him and shot a laser, forcing him to dodge. They all concentrated their power on the crystals, and then Keith swooped in, getting in what was probably the first actual damage to the robeast of the whole fight.

“Let’s form Voltron,” Lance suggested as Keith and Hunk joined them in the fight. 

“I don’t think we’ll have time,” Keith protested.

“He’s right,” Shiro agreed. “We’ll have to figure something else out.

“Well at least we outnumber the crystals,” Hunk commented.

“Yeah! It can only block two of us!” Lance said.

“I think I’ve got an idea!” Pidge said. “See if you can get me and open shot at it’s chest!”

They managed to do as she asked, and Pidge disabled the robeast with her vine cannon for long enough to form Voltron. They aimed directly at the robeast’s chest with the sword, and pierced through the shield, finally defeating it for good.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They joined Allura and Slav in the control room, and Keith spoke up. “Have you heard from Coran?” he asked Allura.

“Yes,” Allura answered tersely. The tension in the room was palpable.

“So  are we ready to pop through the wormhole and get back to Olkarion?” Lance asked, trying to cut through the tension.

“Yes! I just contacted Coran and the teleduv is almost complete!” Allura said cheerily. Normally, Lance would’ve taken this as a success, but this time, Lance frowned. “Hunk, thank you for getting the scaultrite” Allura continued, causing Lance’s frown to deepen.

“No problem,” Hunk waved it off before frowning. “Y’know, Keith was there too,” he pointed out.

Allura stared at Keith before walking off to start the wormhole. Lance’s blood began to boil, but he took a deep breath and said nothing. After all, while the way Allura was treating Keith wasn’t  _ right _ , Lance could understand why she was wary. He’d give her a few more quintants before he confronted her.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We’ve made a lot of progress while you were gone,” Coran told told them when they reached Olkarion. “And now that we have the scaultrite, it should be finished in less than a quintant.”

“Wow,” Lance stared out at the teleduv frame in awe. “That is one big teleduv.”

“Nice job, Coran,” Keith grinned.

“Good job,” Hunk said and fist bumped Coran.

They chatted for a bit more before going their own ways. Somehow, though, the Paladins all ended up in the same spot, staring out over the expanse of Olkarion. The weight of the plan had finally set in. Tomorrow, one way or another, this would probably be over.  Tomorrow, they’d either be heroes, or maybe martyrs. 

“So what’s everyone thinking about?” Pidge asked.

“Zarkon,” they all chimed in unison.

“We’ve come a long way,” Keith said.

“Yeah,” Lance agreed. “I mean, Hunk hardly ever throws up anymore!”

“You guys remember that one Arusian?” Hunk asked.

“You mean the one Keith tried to beat up?” Lance laughed.

“Hey! He was their bravest warrior, okay?!” Keith argued.

“Remember when the food goo machines attacked us?” Pidge grinned.

“That was scary!” Hunk said. “Probably the scariest thing that’s happened while we’ve been here!”

“Oh come on! Think about everything else we’ve faced!” Lance said. “ _ That’s _ really your scariest moment?!”

“Your right,” Hunk chuckled. “But at least I expected most of those things to happen. Food shouldn’t attack you! Ever!”

“You realize after this is over, the universe won’t need Voltron anymore?” Shiro spoke up.

“I can go back to my family,” Lance realized. 

“And I can find for mine,” Pidge said.

“And I can look for mine too, I guess,” Keith added. 

“Tomorrow, this will be over. We can’t fail,” Shiro said. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, they gathered around the teleduv frame in their Lions. 

“Everyone, lock into your positions,” Shiro ordered. “It’s time to get this thing in the air.”

Allura sent up the ship, helping the Lions lift the teleduv into the air. Once it was in the air, they regrouped in the control room. They reviewed the plan, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was the best chance they had.  They split off to go prepare for their parts of the plan.Shiro headed to the Black Lion, while Slav headed to the teleduv, and the rest took their seats at the controls.

“Zarkon took the bait,” Shiro announced. “Is everyone in position?”

“We haven’t heard from Thace. We must abort the mission immediately,” Kolivan informed them.

“”What do you mean abort the mission? We can’t!” Allura protested.  

“The Blade of Marmora does not take chances,” Antok said. “It’s how we’ve survived so long.”

“It’s held you back!” Allura told him. “Perhaps if you’d taken more chances, Zarkon would not still be an issue!”

“We would rather wait than jeopardize everything,” Kolivan defended the Blade. “Besides, it is too late to find someone else to do the job from the inside.”

“I’ll do it,” Keith spoke up.

“What?” Allura asked, confusion and concern clear in her tone. 

“I’ll sneak onto the ship. I’m part Galra, so I can interact with their technology,” Keith explained. “Pidge, you can set up a pod with a cloaking device, right?”

“Yeah, but…” Pidge started, only to be cut off.

“I would never command someone so young and inexperienced to do something so dangerous,” Kolivan spoke up.

“Nobody’s  _ commanding _ me to do anything,” Keith told him. “I’m doing it.”

Keith and Pidge left to prepare Keith to leave, and Allura stood there, staring after them. 

“I’m going to go make sure they don’t need any help,” Allura spoke up after a moment. Lance grinned slightly, as Allura dashed out of the room after them. 

Soon enough Keith reported back that he was on board Zarkon’s ship, and Lance informed Allura that the castle defenses were ready to go. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge headed to their Lions as the fleet approached.

“Is everyone ready?” Shiro asked.

“Keith isn’t in position yet. We need more time,” Kolivan said as Lance reached Blue’s hangar.

“Well I’m not sure how much longer I can keep them in position on my own,” Shiro admitted. 

“You won’t have to,” Pidge told him as the three of them joined the fray.

“Good timing,” Shiro sighed. “Okay, so we need to keep Zarkon here until that virus is loaded,” Shiro reminded them.

“No problem,” Hunk said.

“Gotcha!” Lance agreed. 

“We’ve got this!” Pidge said. The four of them got to work taking out the Galra ships around them, making sure not to leave the vicinity of Zarkon’s ship. So far, the plan was working. 

But it was starting to get harder to hold off the fleet. 

“It’s starting to get hairy here,” Lance called over the comms. “Are you almost ready Keith?”

“We’re working on it,” Keith said. “The Galra changed the password, so we have to find a way around it.”

“Wait, backup, who’s we?” Lance asked, confused.

“I found Thace,” Keith said. “We’re working together now.”

Lance was going to ask more questions, but he had to turn his attention back to the battle. 

“The gravity generator isn’t going to last much longer,” Slav called over the comms.

Lance’s heart dropped. Were they going to be able to carry out the plan?

“Just try to keep it together a little bit longer,” Shiro said.

They were only fighting for a few more dobashes when Slav announced that the generator had failed. The cloaking on the teleduv was gone. The plan wasn’t going to work. 

“What are we going to do?” Pidge called.

“There’s nothing we can do but hope Keith shuts down Zarkon’s ship in time,” Shiro replied. 

Allura announced that she was going to start powering the teleduv, and the Red Lion came flying out of the castle not long after. Zarkon’s ship was shut down. The plan was going to work after all. Zarkon’s ship got sucked through the wormhole, and the paladins followed close behind. 

“We did it!” Pidge called. “We actually did it!” 

“It’s not over yet!” Shiro reminded them all. “Form Voltron!” 

Once they’d formed Voltron,they formed the sword and cut a line around the middle of the ship, and aimed for the weak spots as they went. It was going well, until dark quintessence shot out and struck Voltron. It coursed through Lance’s body, and his jaw went tight. He couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. But it was. His vision tunneled, and the last thing he heard before he blacked out were his team’s screams of agony. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter doesn't really have any new epilepsy facts to include, but as always, I recommend checking out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org for more information on epilepsy.


	10. Drifting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long. I got swamped with a major project. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

**Chapter 10**

Lance groaned. His head felt heavy with fog, and his body felt heavy. Everything hurt, even places Lance didn’t know  _ could _ hurt, but the pain felt distant. 

“Lance!” Hunk called, dashing to Lance’s side. Lance winced at the sound, but thankfully, Hunk spoke at a much softer volume after that. “ How are you feeling buddy?” Hunk asked quietly.

“Hurts,” Lance managed to get out. “Thirsty.”

“Here, we’ve got some water for you,” Pidge said quietly as she approached with a water pouch. Lance realized that he and Hunk weren’t alone and tried to look around the room, but decided that was a bad idea when his head started spinning.

“I’m gonna go get him some food,” Shiro spoke up.

“Good idea,” Hunk nodded. 

As Shiro passed, he ruffled Lance’s hair. “I’m glad you’re ok. You had us really worried for a bit there, pal.”

“Why don’t you take your meds while we wait for Shiro to get back?” Hunk asked, pressing the two pills into Lance’s hand. 

Lance swallowed the pills with slightly more difficulty than usual, as Hunk helped him sit up properly. Lance then eased back onto the bed. 

“What happened?” Lance managed to ask, fighting through the fog.

“Well… what’s the last thing you remember?” Pidge asked hesitantly. 

“We were fighting Zarkon’s ship and then…” Lance trailed off as the memory hit him. “Oh. That attack. I had a seizure didn’t I?”

Pidge nodded, and Lance’s heart sank. 

Keith huffed. “That’s an understatement.”

“What do you mean?” Lance asked blearily.

“You went into status buddy,” Hunk admitted. “Coran had to sedate you with some weird Altean meds. It wasn’t pretty.” 

“Did we win the fight at least?” Lance asked, hoping that all of that planning hadn’t been thrown off by his stupid brain.

“How could you ask something like that?!” Keith yelled. “No! We didn’t win! The second we realized you weren’t responding, we booked it back here to make sure you were okay! Why on earth do you think we’d do anything else?!”

“So Zarkon’s still out there,” Lance could feel tears welling up against his will. 

“We’ll have another chance to defeat Zarkon,” Pidge reassured Lance. “We wouldn’t have had another chance to make sure you were okay.”

“But it’s my fault,” Lance protested. “ If I hadn’t had a stupid seizure, we would have won.”

“Shh, buddy, it’s not your fault,” Hunk soothed. “We don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t had a seizure. We could’ve lost anyway. It’s not your fault.” 

Shiro walked back in with a plate of food goo at that moment. He took one look at the scene and placed the food goo on a counter, striding over and gathering Lance into his arms. 

“It’s okay,” Shiro murmured. “Everything’s okay. I promise.” As Shiro rocked Lance, Lance’s eyes began to droop. Before long, Lance had drifted back off to sleep.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------          

The next time Lance woke up, Coran was the only one in the room. “It’s good to see you awake my boy!” Coran said, hurrying over to Lance’s bedside. “Is there anything I can get for you?” 

Lance’s stomach growled. 

“Some food would be good,” Lance admitted sheepishly. 

“On it!” Coran dashed out of the room and came back a few minutes later with a bowl of food goo. Normally Lance would’ve complained, but he was tired, hungry, and his jaw was sore, so the food goo was actually exactly what he wanted right now.

“Thanks Coran,” Lance gave a small smile as he reached for the spoon. After a few failed attempts where his hand shook and the food goo fell off the spoon, Lance gave in. “”Coran, can you help me?” 

“Of course my boy,” Coran replied, and started to feed Lance. Lance’s face was burning, but at least it was only Coran. God forbid it had been Keith in the room.

“Now, now, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Coran told Lance. “It happens to the best of us. Why, I remember one time I had to spoon feed King Alfor even!”

“Really?” Lance asked. 

“Of course! You see, King Alfor had had a run-in with the wrong end of a gloggleflum! Nasty little creatures, those are! Alfor’s arms were paralyzed for days! This was before he’d met the queen mind you, so I wound up being his nursemaid as he recovered. Now I won’t lie to you, some of the other men laughed at him for a bit, but as soon as he’d recovered he reminded those men just what he was capable of. And the next time it happened those men didn’t dare laugh at him.”

“Wait, King Alfor had to be spoon fed  _ twice _ ?” Lance asked, laughing. “How did he manage that?”

“The gloggleflums are a sneaky little bunch,” Coran informed Lance. “ Oftentimes, they’ll sneak up on you, and then they’ll  _ pounce _ ! Next thing you know, your arms won’t move and your legs are like food goo! And it took us a while to get rid of that infestation, so there was a hardly a day where someone  _ wasn’t _ in the infirmary thanks to them!” Coran leaned closer to Lance, and in a stage whisper, said, “Between you and me, I think they liked Alfor’s cologne. He was in here more than anybody!”

Lance burst out laughing. “Thanks Coran,” Lance said as his laughter died down. “I needed that.” 

“Anytime my boy,” Coran replied, smiling. “Now, is there anything else I can get you?”

“I think I’m good,” Lance grinned. “I’ll let you know if I need anything though.” 

“Good,” Coran nodded. “Should I go let the others know you’re awake now? I had to give them all some busy work to get them out of here for a bit, but I’m sure they’d like to know you’re awake.”

Lance thought about it. He didn’t really want the whole team swarming him right now, he was still pretty tired. Coran had a point though. “Maybe just Hunk for now? If that’s okay…” Lance suggested. 

“That’s fine,” Coran assured Lance. “Let me go get him for you.”

Coran left the room and returned a few minutes later with Hunk. 

“Hey buddy,” Hunk smiled. “Good to see you awake. How’re you feeling?”

“Tired and sore, but it could be worse,” Lance shrugged. 

“That’s good,” Hunk said, pulling a chair over to Lance’s bedside and straddling it. “You had even me scared for a while, you know?”

“Yeah,” Lance said, casting his eyes away from Hunk, eyes focusing on the sheets on the bed. “Sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Hunk brushed off the apology. “You couldn’t have known what would happen. But now that we know, we’re gonna have to be more careful. You know that, right?” Hunk asked. 

“Yeah,” Lance mumbled. 

“Good,” Hunk nodded firmly. “Now, enough serious talk,” Hunk smiled. “I brought you something.”

Lance perked up. “What’d you bring me?” 

Hunk grinned slyly as he pulled out some new facial masks from behind his back. “I don’t think you’ve had a proper spa day in a while, and we have to spoil you _ somehow _ until you’re better, so I figured now would be as good a time as any.” 

“Hunk, my man, have I ever  told you how much I love you? Because if I haven’t, I love you,” Lance grinned.

“Awww, love you too buddy,” Hunk cooed, ruffling Lance’s hair. “Now let’s get this spa night started!”

“Okay, so what have we got?” Lance asked.

“Well, We’ve got the masks obviously,” Hunk said, then pulled some more stuff out from behind his back. “We’ve got some nail files and some clear coat, and I found some super nice smelling creams and stuff. I would’ve brought some other stuff too, but I think Coran would kill me if I did anything that required you to leave the med bay.”

“You make a very good point Hunk,” Lance agreed. “This is enough anyway. I’m still kind of tired, so I’m not sure I’d make it through the works.”

“Well let’s see what you  _ can _ get through, then,” Hunk replied, squeezing some of the mask into his hands. “I thought we could start with the mask, that way we can do the other stuff while it dries,” Hunk explained.

“Sounds good to me,” Lance agreed, relaxing as Hunk began to apply the mask. “So, Coran said he gave you all busywork?”

“Yeah,” Hunk chuckled. “He actually asked me to see if I could make the food goo dispenser make different flavors of food goo.”

Lance grinned. “Man, he must have been really desperate then.”

“Yeah,”Hunk agreed. “He asked Keith to go make sure there were exactly 30 gladiators in the training deck,” Hunk shook his head fondly. “I don’t think Keith has realized yet that he doesn’t have to  _ fight _ all thirty though.”

“What I wouldn’t give to see the look on that mullet’s face when it finally hits him,” Lance laughed. “What are Pidge and Shiro up to?”

“Well Coran is making Pidge change the color-coding on her Galra-tracker, which is gonna take her forever. I think his excuse was ‘On Altea, all color-coding was in the exact shades of the Lions. Your system is too confusing for me,’” Hunk laughed. “I think Pidge knew Coran was messing with her, but she couldn’t prove it so she had to go with it.”

“And Shiro?” Lance asked, trying to get his own laughter under control.

“Oh, you’re gonna love this,” Hunk told Lance, leaning in conspiratorially. “Coran asked Shiro to make some clothes. For the mice.”

“Oh come on, Shiro  _ had _ to know that was fake!” Lance said, howling with laughter.

“I think he did, but I think he knew what Coran was trying to do too, so he gave in far quicker than I expected him to,” Hunk agreed.

“Does Shiro even know  _ how _ to sew?” Lance asked.

“I honestly don’t even know,” Hunk shrugged, finishing the mask and grabbing Lance’s hands. “Probably not though.” 

Hunk started to rub some lotion into Lance’s arms. It smelt faintly of something similar to cherry blossoms. It felt good on Lance’s sore muscles, and Lance allowed himself to sag a bit under Hunk’s ministrations. He had definitely needed this spa day. Lance sighed contentedly and Hunk grinned.

“We need to do this more often,” Lance said.

“We really do,” Hunk agreed. “It feels like forever since the two of us have just hung out.”

Lance hummed in agreement. “We should reinstate weekly spa nights. What do you think?”

“Definitely,” Hunk chuckled, putting away the lotion and starting to file Lance’s nails. “But you have to be my taste-tester more too,” Hunk said, brandishing the nail file in Lance’s face. 

“No complaints here,” Lance chuckled.  

“Good,” Hunk nodded firmly. “Now that that’s settled, we need to rope the others into more bonding nights too.”

“True,” Lance agreed. “Keith and Shiro shouldn’t be too hard to convince, we just need to tell them it’s for Voltron. Pidge, on the other hand, already knows all of our tricks. We’re gonna have to try harder to convince her.”

“Oh, Pidge will be easy,” Hunk said, waving Lance off. “I got the Gameflux up and running the other day. As long as we’re playing videogames, Pidge will come along no problem.”

“Hunk, you beautiful genius you, why didn’t you tell me you had the Gameflux running?” 

“I only got it running just before we went to fight Zarkon,” Hunk explained. “The nerves were keeping me up, so I decided to see if I could get the Gameflux to work, and I did. There hasn’t really been a good time to bring it up since.” 

“Good point,” Lance conceded. “I call dibs on the first game though.”

“No problem, buddy,” Hunk said, as he put down the nail file and started applying the clear coat to Lance’s nails. “You, me, and Pidge will have the first game as soon as you’re up to it. Shiro and Keith can wait until game night.”

“Good,” Lance nodded resolutely. His expression softened. “Thanks for this Hunk,” he said. “I really needed this.”

“It’s no problem, Lance,” Hunk replied. “This is what friends are for.”

Lance smiled gratefully. The conversation changed back into lighter topics, and not long after Lance’s nails finally dried, he drifted back off into sleep, Hunk’s voice fading away into nothingness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Lance went into status epilepticus from Haggar's attack. This means he basically couldn't stop seizing. On earth, he would've been prescribed an emergency sedative, but if he's anything like me, probably wouldn't carry it with him, so he had to rely on Altean medication. Also, please note, I haven't experienced status epilepticus myself, so while I tried to research it and ask people who have experienced it what it's like after, I may be off in my description.  
> For more information on epilepsy check out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org


	11. Bonding moments and Feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Happy Nanowrimo for those participating, and Happy Epilepsy Awareness month!  
> I'm going to try to update this fic pretty frequently this month, but we'll see what school and life let me do.  
> Also, if there are any Voltron fics you'd like to see me try to write, let me know! I want to work on this a lot, but I also want to start trying to work on other stuff as well in between chapters here. My only request is that you guys stay away from asking me to write romance.

**Chapter 11**

When Lance woke up again, he noticed Keith sitting at the edge of his bed. “What’re you doing here?” Lance asked.

“We didn’t want you to be alone when you woke up,” Keith shrugged. “And Hunk and Pidge needed to work on some stuff. Otherwise they wouldn’t have let the rest of us anywhere near you.”

Lance chuckled. “Come on, I know they can be a little overprotective sometimes, but they’re not  _ that _ bad.”

“Fine,” Keith conceded. “They may have let Shiro in. And I guess you already know they let Coran in. But me and Allura? No way.”

“I mean, the fact that you’re in here  _ now _ probably means that they’d let you in here under their supervision,” Lance pointed out. 

“That’s… actually a good point,” Keith conceded. “But anyway, how are you feeling?’

“A lot better than last time I woke up,” Lance said. And it was true. His head didn’t feel as foggy, and the soreness had begun to dissipate. “A little hungry, but other than that, I mostly feel fine.”

“Should I go get you something?” Keith asked awkwardly. 

“Actually… I was thinking maybe we could go to the kitchen?” Lance asked. “I mean, I don’t know exactly how long it’s been, but I’ve been in this bed for too long. I want to get out of here for a bit.” 

“Umm… okay… let me just go tell someone…” Keith started, but Lance interrupted him. 

“Chill, mullet. It’ll be fine. Now let’s go.” Lance hopped out of bed, legs shaking unsteadily for a split second before he regained control. He strolled out of the med bay with as much confidence as he could muster, Keith trailing behind him anxiously. To be honest, Lance probably should have stayed in bed a little longer, but he needed to get back up to speed as soon as possible. Besides, Lance trusted Keith to catch him if he stumbled. 

“So what’s been going on around here while I was cooped up?” Lance asked. 

“Hunk and Pidge have been working on shielding the Lions from quintessence attacks,” Keith told him. “And Shiro and Allura have been working with the Blade to keep tabs on Zarkon. They wanna make sure there’s no surprises while you recover.” 

“I mean, they should be trying to keep tabs on Zarkon anyway, but okay,” Lance said. “What about you? What have you been up to?” 

“I’ve been training with Red more,” Keith admitted. 

“Really?” Lance asked. “You’ve always struck me as more of a stabby fighter than wanting to fight with Red though.”

“Yeah, well…” Keith started hesitantly. “When that attack hit, Voltron was ripped apart,” Keith looked away from Lance picking at a frayed string on his one of his gloves. “The rest of our lions were fine, but Blue was kind of dead on her feet at first. She almost got hit again, but luckily Hunk managed to get in front of her in time.” Keith’s voice lowered, and Lance almost had to strain to hear him. “But I couldn’t get there fast enough.” Keith’s voice slowly rose in volume. “I was almost as close as Hunk was, and Red’s the fastest Lion, but you could’ve been hurt worse than you already were because me and Red aren’t a good enough team yet.” Keith’s voice suddenly dropped again. “I never want to be in that position again, with any of you.” 

“Keith…” Lance started, looking at the Red Paladin with worry. 

“Anyway, we’re here,” Keith pointed out. “I think there might be some leftovers in the fridge. Let me go check.”

Lance’s gaze followed Keith as he strode towards the fridge. “Keith, you know none of that is on you, right?”

Keith didn’t respond.

“Come on, it all turned out fine anyway,” Lance pointed out. “There’s nothing to really worry about. What ifs help no one.”

“And what if it happens again?” Keith asked. “It might not turn out so well next time.”

“What did I just say about what ifs?” Lance tried to joke, but it fell flat. “Sometimes things happen and they’re no one’s fault Keith,” Lance said softly.  “You can’t expect yourself to be perfect. So your bond with Red isn’t as strong as it could be, who cares? You have plenty of other strengths, and you’ve saved my butt with them more than once.”

Keith huffed. Lance wanted to say more, but Hunk and Pidge came in at that moment. Hunk looked at the food Keith had dug out of the fridge and huffed. 

“Keith, those leftovers are from breakfast yesterday!” Hunk complained.

“So?” Keith asked. 

“So they’re  _ breakfast _ food. It’s  _ dinner _ time,” Hunk pointed out. 

“Says the man who insisted we have at least one pancake dinner a week back at the Garrison,” Pidge snorted, sitting next to Lance and stealing some of the leftovers. 

“That was different!” Hunk said. “Those nights we were  _ supposed _ to be having breakfast for dinner. This on the other hand, is just shameful.” Hunk shook his head with mock mournfulness. “I’m gonna whip up something new for you buddy,” Hunk said, smiling at Lance as he put on an apron. “And  _ you _ aren’t gonna have any,” Hunk brandished a wooden spoon at Pidge.

“ _ Aww…  _  but  _ Hunk… _ ” Pidge whined.

“Nope. Not gonna happen,” Hunk shook his head adamantly. 

“Fine,” Pidge huffed, pouting a bit. Lance laughed. He hadnd’t seen his friends act like this in a while. 

“I  bet Hunk will let  _ me _ have some,” Keith spoke up suddenly, looking at Pidge loftily. 

“Nope,” Hunk said, causing Keith to deflate and Lance to laugh even harder. “This food is for Lance only.”

“What did I do?!” Keith asked.

“You tried to give Lance breakfast food for dinner, duh,” Pidge pointed out.

As Hunk cooked, Pidge and Keith tried to steal bites, though Pidge was definitely more brazen in her attempts than Keith.  Lance smiled, as he struggled to keep from falling asleep at the table. He didn’t want to admit it, but walking to the kitchen had taken more out of him than he thought it would, and he just wanted to eat and go back to bed.

“You alright buddy?” Hunk asked quietly while trying to fend off Pidge’s latest attack on his food. Lance smiled as he noticed Keith’s hand sneak in unnoticed by Hunk and replied. 

“Yeah, I’m just kind of tired still I guess,” Lance shrugged. 

“Well then let’s get you fed and then back to bed,” Hunk said, smacking Pidge’s hand with the spoon and finally putting the concoction in the oven. 

“So I heard you guys are trying to add quintessence shields to the Lions?” Lance asked. “How’s that going?”

“We’re not making quintessence shields,” Pidge huffed, “We’re making shields that block quintessence attacks. There’s a difference.” 

“Wait,” Hunk cut in. “What if there’s not?” 

“What do you mean?” Keith asked. 

“Well, Pidge and I have been looking for materials that can block out quintessence, but we haven’t had much success yet,” Hunk admitted. “But that’s because we don’t really know how quintessence works. But what if quintessence works like a magnet?” Hunk asked Pidge.

“It could be possible,” Pidge mused. “But then again, it might not be right. Besides, how would we make a shield that massive out of pure quintessence?”

“Maybe we don’t have to…” Hunk mused. “Maybe instead of blocking it completely, we should try to make it more like a capacitor.”

“Do you think a Balmeran crystal could work?” Pidge asked.

“That’s brilliant!” Hunk exclaimed. “Now if we can find a way to make it into a big ol’ shield, we can test it!” 

Hunk and Pidge launched into excited tech-talk, and Lance turned to Keith. “They’re such nerds,” Lance said, shaking his head fondly.

“Hey! No insulting us or you’ll be stuck with food goo!” Hunk said, cutting off his conversation with Pidge to scold Lance. 

“You know you love me,” Lance teased. “You’d never actually subject me to that.”

“Do you really want to test that theory?” Pidge asked.

“Probably not,” Lance admitted. He would never take a risk when Hunk’s food was involved. 

“Good idea,” Hunk smirked. Finally, he took the food out of the oven, and placed it in front of Lance. 

Lance dug in and groaned. This was the best thing he’d eaten since this whole crazy adventure started. “You really outdid yourself this time,” Lance told Hunk.

“I’m glad you like it,” Hunk smiled. As delicious as the food was though, Lance’s eyes had begun to droop by the time he was finished. “Come on, bedtime,” Hunk said, standing by Lance. 

“I’m too comfy to move,” Lance complained. 

“Come on, I’ll give you a piggyback ride,” Hunk grinned, and Lance nodded, clambering onto Hunk’s back. As Lance’s eyes started to drift shut, he found himself thankful that he wound up in space with this team.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next time Lance woke up, the soreness finally seemed to have faded almost completely. Surprisingly, nobody was in the med bay with him this time, so he climbed out of bed and went looking for them. His body finally actually listened to him this time. He wandered aimlessly for awhile, the curiousness slowly turning to panic as there was no one to be found. Possibilities raced through Lance’s head, each one worse than the last. They could have gotten bored and decided he’s be fine alone for awhile was the rational thought, but then he started thinking that they’d forgotten about him, or decided he was too much of a hassle to deal with right now. But as bad as those thoughts were, they paled in comparison to the thoughts that something had happened to them. The Galra could’ve broken in while Lance was asleep and kidnapped them. Or they could all be somewhere on the ship injured and needing help. Just about anything could have happened and Lance would’ve been helpless to stop it.  

Finally, he could faintly hear voices in the lounge, so he began to walk toward it, the words growing clearer as he came closer.

“...can’t... just… he…”

“...Too dangerous …”

“I agree...Allura…”

“Do you really think Blue will…?”

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Shiro stated as Lance finally got within proper earshot of the room. “Allura is going to have to try to fly Blue while we figure things out.”

“You’re gonna replace me?” Lance squeaked from the doorway. 

“No!” Shiro stood up, stepping towards Lance. Lance flinched and Shiro retreated. “No, we’re not going to replace,” Shiro repeated. “This is entirely temporary. We just want to make sure that you’re safe Lance.”

“Blue can keep me safe,” Lance protested. “We trained for this!”

“Except you still went into status when you were hit by that attack Lance,” Hunk spoke up gently. “And the Galra have probably figured out that it’s a weakness. You might not survive next time it hits you.”

“But what about those shields you and Pidge were working on?” Lance asked, voice shaking. 

“They’re still highly experimental,” Pidge spoke, shaking her head regretfully. “We can’t risk it just yet.”

“But... if Allura’s flying Blue, what am I going to do?” Lance asked.

“You can help me out with manning the castle during battles!” Coran piped up. “I’m sure you’ll be a natural!’

“Thanks Coran,” Lance gave the man a watery smile. “I.. think I’m just going to go to my room now if that’s okay.”

“I’ll come check on you in a bit, okay buddy?” Hunk asked, forcing a smile. 

“Okay,” Lance agreed and walked away, forcing calmness into his steps until he was out of sight. Once he was sure nobody would notice, Lance broke into a sprint for his room.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_ What if Allura crashes? _

_ What if Allura dies? _

_ What if Allura is actually good at this? _

_ What if Blue likes Allura better? _

_ What if  _ everyone _ likes Allura better? _

_ What if I never fly Blue again? _

_ What if I never  _ fly _ again? _

_ What if Coran gets sick of me? _

_ What if  _ everyone _ gets sick of me? _

 

Lance couldn’t stop these thoughts running through his head, as hard as he tried. He sobbed into his pillow as he fought for control over his thoughts. If only he hadn’t had to have a stupid seizure because of stupid Haggar. His stupid malfunctioning brain had ruined everything, and now he was going to be useless. Sure, Coran had said he could help out with the castle, but Lance had seen Coran fly the ship on his own before, and Lance knew that he certainly wasn’t necessary for the job. Even the  _ mice _ would be more useful than Lance now. At least they could go spy on people if they needed to. Lance doubted the others would let him even do that. If it were up to Hunk, Lance was sure he’d never leave this castle again. 

“Hey, you okay buddy?” Lance looked up and saw Hunk standing in the doorway. He shook his head.

“You want a hug?” Hunk asked. Lance nodded, and Hunk joined Lance on the bed and engulfed him in a hug. They laid there for a while, Lance sobbing into Hunk’s chest and Hunk just rubbing Lance’s back before Hunk finally spoke up. “You know the reason we want Allura to fly Blue for a while is because you’re irreplaceable, right?”

Lance shook his head. “That doesn’t even make sense,” he muttered. 

“If you could be tossed to the side so easily, we wouldn’t be so careful with your safety,” Hunk explained. “Remember Rover? Rover could be replaced in an instant, so Pidge sacrificed him. We can’t replace you though. Nothing and nobody could ever replace you buddy. You mean so much to us, we just want you to be safe. It sucks that you can’t fly Blue for a while, and we’re gonna miss you a lot when we form Voltron, but I’d rather be without you for a little bit than be without you forever.” 

“What if Blue ends up liking Allura better though?” Lance asked. 

Hunk laughed. “Dude, Blue waited 10,000 years for  _ you _ . Do you really think she’d abandon you for Allura?”

“What if she changes her mind though?” Lance asked.

“She won’t. I promise,” Hunk told Lance. 

“How can you promise that?” Lance grumbled. 

“Let me tell you a secret,” Hunk whispered to Lance. “You’re way more fun than Allura.”

Lance snorted. “I knew that,” he told Hunk. “But what exactly makes you think that Blue chose me because I’m fun?”

“Easy,” Hunk shrugged. “Keith couldn’t get Blue to open up for him.” That actually got a laugh out of Lance. 

“You know he was stealing food from you at dinner, right?” Lance asked. 

“He also thinks fighting a level 30 training bot is fun though,” Hunk shrugged. “I think his sense of fun is kind of skewed.” 

“Ok, so by that logic, shouldn’t Coran be my replacement?” Lance asked.

“ _ Temporary _ replacement.” Hunk stressed. “And I want you to picture Coran as a Paladin for a moment.”

Lance thought about it, and then shook his head grinning. “Nah, you’re right. How long do you think it would take Shiro to crack if Coran was the one flying Blue?”

“I’d give it two minutes,” Hunk nodded seriously, sending Lance into a fit of giggles. 

“Wait. Imagine if you guys got  _ Slav _ to stand in for me,” Lance snickered.

“Oh god. Shiro’s head would explode in two seconds,” Hunk laughed.

“And then Coran could be the Black Paladin!” Lance added through his laughter. 

“We’d have to replace Keith with Kaltenecker then,” Hunk told Lance. “There’s no way Keith would survive both Coran  _ and _ Slav as Paladins.” 

“Ok, so let’s just build a new Voltron with aliens we’ve met,” Lance grinned at Hunk.

“Ok, so we’re down to just Yellow and Green?” Hunk asked.

“Yep,” Lance said.

“That’s my choice for Yellow!” Hunk exclaimed. “The yupper!”

“You’re awful,” Lance laughed. 

“And for Green… the mice,” Hunk decided.

“Which one?” Lance asked.

“All of them.” Hunk said. “Pulling that two kids in a trenchcoat trick.”

Lance laughed before sobering. “Thanks Hunk, I needed that.” 

“No problem,” Hunk responded, pulling Lance into a tighter hug. “Anytime. You know that.”

“Yep,” Lance smiled up at Hunk cheekily, sending Hunk into a laughing fit. Things were going to be rough for a while, but Lance realized now that he’d have his friends through all of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new epilepsy facts in this chapter, but remember to check out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org if you want to learn more!


	12. Allura and Blue

**Chapter 12**

Lance approached Allura as she stood at the controls of the ship. “Hey Allura,” Lance started, shuffling his feet and running a hand through his hair. 

“Lance! It’s good to see you!” Allura smiled at him sheepishly. “I hope we didn’t offend you earlier. I assure you, it was not our intention.”

“I’ll admit, I was a little hurt,” Lance told her, rubbing the back of his neck. “But I know you guys didn’t mean anything by it. But I did actually want to talk to you about earlier.”

“Of course,” Allura agreed, walking away from the controls and sitting down, gesturing for Lance to take a seat. “What did you wish to talk about?”

“I was just thinking, that if you’re going to be piloting Blue for a while, you might want some tips,” Lance shrugged. “Plus, you might need me to come with you to get Blue to let you in. She can be pretty stubborn sometimes.” 

“I would appreciate any help you’re willing to give,” Allura said. “I’ll admit, I’m not quite sure I know how to approach all of this. Watching the Paladins, and being a Paladin, even temporarily, are two very different things I’d imagine.”

“Yeah,” Lance nodded. “So do you wanna start by visiting Blue, or do you want to see if the others are up for a mind meld?”

“Do you think the mind meld to be necessary?” Allura asked, confused. “It’s purpose is as a bonding exercise, and I’d like to think I know all of you enough to not need the extra bonding practice.” 

“Trust me,” Lance laughed. “Knowing Hunk and being mind melded with Hunk are two entirely different things.” 

“Isn’t it different with all the Paladins then?” Allura asked curiously. 

“Yeah, but Hunk and I know each other better than anyone,” Lance explained. “And I  _ still _ wasn’t prepared for mind melding with him.”

“What’s it like?” Allura asked. 

“It’s not really something you can explain,” Lance told her. “You just kind of have to do it. Besides, I’m sure it will be different for you.”

“I suppose that would make sense,” Allura hummed. 

“”So which do you wanna do first? Mind meld, or talk to Blue?” Lance asked again.

“Perhaps talking to Blue first would be best,” Allura said. “It would be a waste of everyone’s time to practice the mind meld if Blue decides not to let me in.” 

“I’ll make sure she lets you in,” Lance assured Allura. “But you do have a point. Blue can be pretty stubborn when she wants to be.” 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance and Allura were both hesitant to enter Blue’s hangar. After what felt like an eternity, but was in reality probably only ticks, Lance finally took a deep breath, steeled himself, and strode in with as much confidence as he could muster, with Allura trailing behind him. “Hey there! How’s my favorite girl?” Lance called out as he entered the hangar. He felt Blue press feelings of warmth into the back of his mind. “That’s good to hear!” Lance smiled, though it was bittersweet. This might be the last time he talked to Blue like this for awhile. “So listen, Blue, I’m not exactly in top condition right now, and I’m not sure I can handle another blow like we took the other day, not for a while at least-”

“Preferably never,” Allura interrupted, and Lance felt a wave of agreement  that wasn’t his own wash through him. 

“Okay, preferably never,” Lance conceded. “But anyway, the universe still needs Voltron. But Blue, I can’t pilot you for a while. Hunk and Pidge are working on making it safer for me to fly again, but that might not be ready for a while.” A wary thrum ran through Lance’s body, and he had to take a deep breath to keep his voice steady through the next part. “Blue, you’re gonna need to let Allura pilot you for a while.” A roar of protest echoed throughout the hangar. An image of Blue and Lance in the thick of battle and the exhilaration they’d felt in that moment consumed Lance. He swallowed and spoke up again. “Listen, beautiful. I know. I don’t like this idea any more than you do. I would never want to fly another Lion, so I get that you don’t want another Paladin. You and me are a team, and we’ll always  _ be _ a team Blue. But the universe needs Voltron. And I can’t fly right now.”

“Blue, I would never attempt to replace Lance,” Allura spoke up, her gaze intently focused on Blue, eyes shining with sincerity. “Nobody could ever fill Lance’s shoes. This would only be a temporary arrangement. I know this isn’t ideal, trust me, I do. But I also know that we both want Lance to be safe. And right now, the safest thing for Lance is to remain in the castle and for the two of us to work together to keep him safe. I hope that we can work together, for Lance’s sake.” 

Lance felt Blue’s temper fade, but the reluctance was still there. 

“Come on Blue,” Lance pleaded. “This is hard enough for all of us. Just, give Allura a chance. If you really hate it, we can figure something else out, but I’m sure you two will get along just fine.” An image of Lance standing behind Allura, who was sitting in Blue’s pilot seat washed over him, and he heard Allura let out a small gasp. 

“Did you see that too?” Lance asked, and Allura nodded slowly. 

“Okay, so let’s take Blue out for a test flight then!” Lance said. “I can give you pointers, and then maybe Blue will let you fly her without me being there too. After all, if I had to be with you all the time, that would kind of defeat the point of all this,” Lance joked, glaring at Blue playfully.

“Are you certain?” Allura asked. “What if we’re tracked down while we’re out? And are you even feeling well enough for this?”

“I’m fine,” Lance waved off Allura’s concerns. “And the second a Galra ship gets even remotely close, we’ll call the others in and retreat.”

“Okay,” Allura sighed, shaking her head fondly. “But I’m making sure everyone knows this was your idea if something happens.” 

“Of course,” Lance nodded solemnly, though the grin on his face spoke volumes more than the nod could.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance felt in his element as he stood behind Allura, zipping through the stars. “I want you to try doing a barrel roll now,” Lance told Allura. “Blue sometimes like to show off in battle, and a barrel roll is both flashy  _ and _ effective.”

“A...what?” Allura asked, looking at Lance in confusion. 

“A barrel roll,” Lance told her. “It’s... how do I explain this…?” Lance fumbled with his hands, making different rotating motions as he tried  to think of the best way to explain it. “Umm.. here, I guess I’ll just show you, if that’s okay with you.” 

Allura carefully lifted her hands from the controls, and Lance’s hands replaced hers, twisting rapidly to guide Blue into a barrel roll. Allura held tightly to her seat as Blue twisted and Lance laughed. He was going to miss this. Flying with Blue was a special kind of exhilaration, and he wasn’t going to get another chance like this for a while.  But he trusted Allura. He removed his hands from the controls, and Allura attempted to imitate his actions, laughing a bit herself now that she was in control. 

“You know, if anyone had to fly Blue without me, I’m glad it’s you,” Lance admitted to Allura.

Allura turned to look at Lance, and Lance chuckled. “Eyes on your path, remember? We’re still not done out here. Try to get through those asteroids up ahead,” Allura turned her gaze back to the stars around them, and Lance started to explain. “Blue means a lot to me, you know? She’s pretty great. We’ve been through a lot together, me and Blue. And I know this is going to sound weird, but I worry about her.” A sense of warm amusement pressed softly at Lance’s mind, and he grinned. “I know Blue isn’t easy to take down, but she’s not invincible, and she can still get hurt,” Lance continued, the words just as much for Blue as they were for Allura this time. “She’s in good hands with you though.” Lance told Allura. “Besides, I think Blue will be good for you too,” Lance said, laughing as Allura navigated through the asteroid field with ease, even pulling out some of Blue’s flashier maneuvers. 

“How so?” Allura asked, tilting her head curiously, though she remembered not to turn to look at Lance this time. 

“You always seem kind of tense…” Lance told her. “But Blue won’t let you pilot her right if you can’t relax every now and then, even during a battle. And Blue helps with that too.”

“I mean, we’re in a stressful situation,” Allura reminded Lance. “I think I’m well within my rights to be a bit tense.”

“You’re not wrong,” Lance said, shaking his head fondly at Allura. “But if you don’t relax every now and then, the stress itself might just kill you before the war gets a chance to.” 

“I suppose…” Allura said skeptically. “What did you mean though that Blue won’t allow me to pilot properly if I don’t relax though?” 

“Oh!” Lance said, remembering that he still had a lot to teach Allura. “So, Blue’s element is water, right?” 

Allura nodded.

“Well, Blue’s kind of like water too. She prefers to go with the flow,” Lance wiggled his arm in a rough imitation of waves even though Allura couldn’t see it. “If you’re too tense, you won’t be able to do that as well.”

“And what happens if I try to go against the flow?” Allura asked.

“Well, Blue will fight you on it, and neither of you will get what you want,” Lance explained. “It could turn out pretty bad actually.”

“I will try to keep that in mind,” Allura nodded solemnly. 

“No need to be so serious about it,” Lance laughed. “Look, we’re changing track now. I just want you to whatever you think would be fun to try. That’ll help you understand what I’m trying to say.”

Allura seemed to focus intently for a bit, and then suddenly, Blue was zooming through the air in open space, doing figure eights, loops, and even the barrel roll Lance had just shown Allura. It was starting to make Lance a little dizzy, but even then, he noted that the maneuvers had much more grace and speed behind them than those in the asteroid fields, or even what they’d been like when he’d asked her to attempt them earlier. He glanced down at Allura and from the expression on her face, he guessed she’d noticed the same thing. 

“Is this what it’s always like for you?” Allura asked, coming to a stop and looking at Lance.

“Maybe, but I’d guess not quite,” Lance chuckled. “You and Blue are gonna have a different bond than I have with her, so it could be really different for all I know.”

“That’s right...” Allura sagged slightly in her seat.

“Hey, hey,” Lance said. “I never said that your connection would be worse. And before you try to deny it, I know that’s what you’re thinking. The bond between you and Blue isn’t gonna be worse than between me and Blue. It’s just gonna be different. And different isn’t always a bad thing.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Allura conceded. “So… now what?” 

“Now we go back to the castle,” Lance smiled regretfully. “The others are probably gonna start to worry soon.”

“You’re right,” Allura sighed. “Maybe we can do this again sometime though.”

“I’d like that,” Lance admitted. “But I’m not sure we can. You said it yourself earlier, this was pretty risky. But maybe when it comes time to switch back?” he asked hopefully.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Allura promised, guiding Blue back into the hangars. 

As Lance and Allura walked back into the castle, he turned to her. “You’re gonna do great. Remember that ok? And if you have any questions, or just need to talk, feel free to let me know.”

“I will,” Allura promised, nodding solemnly. “Thank you.”

“No problemo,” Lance said, smiling at Allura before starting to walk away.

“Wait, Lance!’ Allura called.

“Yeah?” Lance asked, turning around to look at Allura. 

“I know that this must be hard on you, but just know that my door is always open if you need anything. It’s the least I can do.”

“Thanks, Allura,” Lance smiled sadly.

“No problemo,” Allura said, smirking, causing Lance to laugh. He shook his head fondly as he walked away.

“Yeah, she’ll be just fine,” Lance muttered to himself, glancing back at Allura staring up at Blue. “They both will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, no new epilepsy facts in today's chapter but remember to check out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org to find out more.


	13. Battle Stations

**Chapter 13**

Lance decided that if Allura was going to start learning about her new job already, he might as well go talk to Coran and see what he can do to help out. Lance started strolling towards the control room to talk to Coran when the ship’s alarms started going off. Lance winced and broke into a sprint. He arrived just after the rest of the paladins, though Allura came in after him. 

“We just received a distress signal that we unfortunately cannot ignore,” Coran informed them. “The Helian people are under attack from the Galra, and they need help immediately!” 

“Okay, so what exactly are we up against?” Shiro asked. 

“There appear to be two Galra fleets there, and you must be careful, as Helia has an extremely toxic atmosphere.”

“Gotcha,” Shiro nodded. “Okay, everybody to your lions. We’ll head down as soon as Allura can open a wormhole.”

“I’ll go get my armor and bayard for Allura,” Lance said, and dashed out of there before anyone could say anything more.

When he reached his room, he allowed himself the slightest moment of hesitation before grabbing his Paladin armor and his bayard before heading back to the control room. He placed the items next to Allura as she worked on getting the castleship to Helia and then turned to Coran. “How can I help?” Lance asked seriously. 

“I’m afraid there’s not going to be much you can for this battle, Lance,” Coran said, twisting his mustache in thought. “I was hoping to have some time to go over the controls with you before this happened.” 

“The mice know what to do,” Allura spoke up as she put on Lance’s armor. “Let them help Lance.” 

“Excellent idea Princess!” Coran called as Allura dashed out the door and the mice lined up in front of Lance, saluting him.  Coran turned to Lance. “Allura’s control station can only be manned by an Altean, so you’ll be manning my station for now,” Coran informed Lance. Lance nodded solemnly and positioned himself where he’d seen Coran stand so many times before, the mice dashing across panels to join him. When Lance placed his hands on the console before him, Chulatt, the smallest of the mice, darted up his hand and onto his shoulder as holograms appeared in front of him. 

“Activate the comms Lance,” Coran ordered, and Lance glanced at the mice on the console for help. They shook their heads and pointed at Chulatt, who pointed her tail at a popup window on the holograms. Lance poked at the hologram and he heard his teammates’ voices crackle to life, echoing through the control room. 

“Coran, do you read me?” Shiro’s voice rang out.  Lance glanced at Coran, who nodded.

“This is Lance,” he informed Shiro. “I’ll be manning Coran’s usual spot for this mission.”

“Lance,” Shiro spoke again. “Tell Coran that we’re approaching Helia now.”

“That won’t be necessary Number One,” Coran spoke up. “I will be manning the Princess’s station for the time being. I can hear you loud and clear.”

“Alright, we will let you know when we get a better look at the fight,” Shiro told them.

“We will remain on standby,” Coran responded.

“Roger,” Shiro replied. Coran’s face scrunched in confusion and despite the tension in the room, Lance had to bite back a laugh. The comms were silent for a bit and then Hunk’s voice rang out. “Are you sure there’s only two Galra fleets?” he asked. “Cause it looks like there’s three command ships.” Lance’s heart plummeted. The odds had been grim with 2 fleets, but if there was a third…

“Positive,” Coran responded. “Though I can have Lance triple check if necessary.”

“Please do,” Allura spoke. “Hunk’s right, this looks wrong.”

The mice directed Lance to another section of the hologram, and Lance scrutinized it. There were 3 dark purple dots, and 2 purple blobs. “It looks like there’s three command ships but only two fleets,” Lance said. Coran looked over at Lance in surprise and pulled up something on his own screens. 

“Lance is correct,” Coran said. “Be careful out there Paladins.” Lance’s heart twinged at the reminder that he wasn’t a paladin right now, but he stayed focused on the screens in front of him.

“Got it,” Pidge’s voice echoed through the room. “So what’s the plan?” 

Lance scanned the screens in front of them, hoping he’d be able to find some useful information, but nothing struck him. 

“Allura will hang back and provide cover fire where necessary,” Shiro spoke up. “Keith and I will take the right side and Pidge and Hunk will take the left. Lance, can you keep an eye on where the command ships are and let us know if they get too close?”

“Roger that,” Lance replied, causing Coran’s face to scrunch again, but Lance paid it little mind. 

Lance watched intently as four of the dots representing his teammates began to corral the purple blobs, causing them to shrink in size, and split into more manageable clusters. Allura’s dot was fairly stationary, but parts of the purple clusters began to disappear that Lance was certain couldn’t have been defeated by the others, and he grinned. Allura was managing to hold her own in this battle, despite the fact that she’d only had a couple of vargas to get to know Blue.  Suddenly, one of the purple dots split off and headed towards the blue dot. 

“Allura, be careful,” Lance called as his heart clenched in his chest. “One of the command ships is headed for you.” 

“Do you think Blue can handle this?” Allura asked, fear tinging her voice. 

“Blue can take some hits,” Lance told her, hoping his voice didn’t waver. He wasn’t lying, but Lance had a sneaking suspicion what was going on, and he didn’t like it.  “Just try to keep the ship as far away from you as possible. I taught you some evasive maneuvers earlier. Use them.” Lance glanced at the screen and saw that Keith and Shiro had significantly diminished their blob. Keith was also positioned pretty close to Allura. “Keith, fall back a bit. Be prepared to help Allura on my command.” 

“Got it,” Keith responded. Keith positioned himself halfway between where he was when Lance called to him and where Allura was, and Lance nodded approvingly to himself. 

Lance watched the blips on his screen intently, gnawing his bottom lip, silently wishing it was him out there instead of Allura. She was talented, sure, but her inexperience was showing. She must have misunderstood what he was trying to teach her earlier, and was using too many complicated maneuvers in her attempts to evade. The command ship was getting closer. Slower than it had been, sure, but its progress was steady. 

“Allura. Tone down the flash. Just get as far away as you can,” Lance called. “The command ship is getting closer to you. Use any obstacles to your advantage, but don’t do any more loops than you have to.”

“Okay,” Allura responded. The command ship’s progress towards Allura slowed even more now, but Lance was still uneasy with how much progress it was making. 

“Keith,” Lance called. “Is there any way you can drop back further?”

“If I dropped back any further, Shiro would be left to fight this command ship alone,” Keith argued. Lance knew that. Of course he did. But he also knew that Shiro stood a better chance than Allura did right now. But it really wasn’t Lance’s place to be giving these orders. He looked down at the mice, who shook their heads sadly, and Lance sighed. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration as his gaze focused back on the screen. Keith and Shiro were down to their command ship and some stragglers, while Hunk and Pidge still had a few more clusters to go. 

“We’ll take these guys out as soon as possible and drop back to Allura when we can,” Shiro called out. It was going to be too late though. Lance knew it, and by the look on Coran’s face, he’d come to the same realization. 

“Princess, put up Blue’s particle barrier,” Coran warned, but said nothing else. They’d relayed the information their teammates needed, and now the decisions were up to them. Lance hated the situation, but Coran wasn’t saying anything else, so who was Lance to say they were making the wrong decision? The command ship was in range now, though, and Lance held his breath. A strangled cry from Allura rang through the room, and Lance wanted to sob as his teammates called out to her. He didn’t have to be watching to know what had just happened. They’d struck Allura with the same attack that had put Lance out of commision. They thought he was still piloting, or that the attack had affected Blue, and they targeted Allura because of it.

“Keith! Go help Allura!” Shiro barked. 

“I’m going to drop back to Allura’s position too,” Pidge told them.

“I’ll go with you,” Hunk said.

“We can’t all drop back!” Keith argued. “Someone needs to keep fighting the fleets!” Keith was right, but Lance didn’t trust himself to speak right now.

“Would you rather leave Allura alone back there?” Pidge asked. 

“Of course not!” Keith groaned. 

“Keith! Just go! Allura could be seriously hurt! She’s not responding!” Shiro cut in. 

Allura’s voice rang out over the comms. “I’m fine. But if somebody could come to my position and help me,it would be appreciated. I’m not sure how many more hits like that Blue and I can take.”

“Keith, you’re closest,” Lance spoke, his voice sounding strained even to his own ears. 

“Everyone, drop back,” Shiro ordered. “Our best choice at this point is to stick together. We may even have to form Voltron.”

“Just hurry, please,” Allura called, her voice more fragile than Lance had ever heard it before, and he felt his heart break in two.

“Can’t the castle back you up until we get there?” Keith asked.

“Negative, Number 4,” Coran spoke solemnly. “The castle’s particle barrier isn’t charged enough to take a hit like that.”  Keith’s soft cursing came across the line, and if Lance wasn’t at the controls, he would have cursed too. This wasn’t looking good for Allura. She wasn’t ready for this, but they’d had no other choice but to throw her out there.

Suddenly, the command ship vanished from his screen. “What just happened out there?” Lance asked.                 

“I’m not entirely sure…” Allura admitted, sounding dazed. “I was sure we were about to take another hit, but then Blue did...something… and a sonic boom took out the ship… I’ve seen you use it before, but I always thought it was your decision.”

“If you keep working with Blue, you’ll be able to control when she uses it. But for now, it’s pretty much her call. Pretty neat, huh?” Lance asked.

“Do the Lions do this often?” Allura asked. 

“Not really,” Lance told her, as he focused back on the screens in front of him. “That’s just how Blue protects you. It’s kind of like how Red runs after Keith whenever he does something stupid. Blue prefers just to whip out a new weapon and show off.” 

Allura laughed as the last of the purple blips disappeared off of Lance’s screen. Lance slumped in relief, and before he knew it, everyone was filtering back into the control room. 

“You did great out there,” Lance congratulated Allura as she walked in behind the other Paladins. 

“Thank you,” Allura said, smiling at Lance, “But I couldn’t have done it without you and Blue.”

“Nah,” Lance shook his head, smiling fondly. “That was all you two. I just gave you a few reminders.” His grin faded. “But let’s go to the med bay and have Coran take a look at you. That hit sounded like it hurt a lot.”

“I’m fine,” Allura assured him. “It just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

“Just do this for me, okay?’ Lance asked.

“Fine,” Allura huffed. “But don’t think I’m going to get looked over every time I take a hit. I’m not fragile you know.”

“Trust me, I know,” Lance laughed, following Allura out of the control room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new epilepsy facts this chapter, but remember to check out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org for more information.
> 
> Let me know what you think of this chapter! It was a little harder for me to write, so constructive criticism would be appreciated.


	14. Meeting Helians

**Chapter 14**

Once Coran had looked Allura over, Shiro walked into the room 

“The Helians have just contacted us,” Shiro informed them. “They want us to come down and celebrate with them. They said something about a feast?”  

“That sounds wonderful!” Allura said, standing up.

“How are we gonna deal with the whole ‘toxic atmosphere’ thing?” Lance asked.

“While their atmosphere is toxic to us, Helians can survive most any atmosphere,” Coran explained. “As such, their ballrooms are designed to provide a safe atmosphere for whatever species is visiting. We’ll have to wear helmets until we reach the ballroom, but once there, I assure you there will be nothing to worry about.”

“Sounds great then!” Lance smiled. “I’m always ready for a party!”

“That’s the spirit!” Coran cheered, giving Lance a hearty pat on the back. “Now why don’t we go let the rest of the Paladins know?” Coran swiftly exited the room and Lance turned to Allura and Shiro. 

“I’m going to go get ready for the party,” Lance informed them. 

“Okay,” Shiro smiled at Lance. “We’ll see you in a little bit then.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Lance got back to his room, he started going through his skincare routine, wanting to look his best for the Helians. As he waited for the mask to dry, he went to his closet get changed for the party. As he opened his closet, his heart sank in realization. Allura had his armor. How was he going to get to the feast? Lance sighed and decided to find Coran and ask him for help. As he opened the door, he found Allura standing there with his armor in her hands. 

“I thought you might find this helpful,” Allura said, grinning slightly at Lance.

“Thanks, Allura,” Lance said, forcing a smile. He wasn’t sure how to respond. He really needed something to get him down to Helia, but taking his armor back didn’t quite feel right somehow. 

“I have another suit of armor that I could wear,” Allura reminded him, sensing his hesitance.

“I think I’ll just ask Coran for help,” Lance told Allura reluctantly. “You should really wear the blue armor. You did great out there and you deserve the recognition for it.” 

“You did a great job today too, you know,” Allura told him. 

“Thanks,” Lance smiled wryly. “But I still think it’s better if you wear the blue armor tonight. I’m sure Coran will have something to help me out anyway.”

“If you’re sure…” Allura said, glancing from the armor in her hands to Lance.

“I’m sure,” Lance said, smiling at her, for real this time. He waved to her over his shoulder as he walked off to find Coran. “See you in a bit!”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It didn’t take Lance long to find Coran, who had stayed in the control room.  “Hey Coran, just the guy I was looking for!” Lance called as he entered the room. 

“Ah, Lance! How can I help you?” Coran asked, turning to face him. 

“I was wondering if you knew where I could find some armor to wear tonight? Allura’s gonna wear my usual armor.” Lance explained. 

“I actually have just the thing!” Coran said, leading Lance to a storage room. Lance stared in awe at the sheer range of colors of armor in front of him. “Now, I want you to keep an open mind when I show it to you,” Coran informed Lance, walking over to the section of more muted colors, and pulling out a set of armor that looked a lot like Lance’s usual armor, only where there were normally blue accents, this armor had gray accents. “I know it looks dull, but I actually have a reason for picking this particular set of armor,” Coran explained. “This armor actually belonged to Blaytz, the Blue Paladin before you. He actually wore it to events like this quite often during his time as a Paladin.”

“Really?” Lance asked, taking the armor from Coran and looking it over.

“Yes, actually. He believed the more neutral color would make people feel more at ease around him. He was quite energetic, much like you you see, and he found that some of the less social cultures found it off-putting, though having a more subdued appearance made them more likely to interact with him despite that,” Coran told him. 

“Let me see how it looks on me,” Lance said. “I’m not entirely sure gray is my color.” Lance ducked behind the rest of the armor in the room and changed quickly, stepping out to show Coran. 

“So… how do I look?” Lance asked nervously, stretching out his arms and turning around.

“You look marvelous my boy!” Coran exclaimed. “Simply splendid!”

“You think so?” Lance asked, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. 

“Of course!” Coran exclaimed, stepping closer to Lance. “Would I ever lie to you?”

“I guess not,” Lance grinned. 

“Shall we go meet up with the others then? I’m sure they’d love to see your outfit.” Coran suggested.

“Yeah, sure,” Lance nodded, grinning as he followed Coran out of the room.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That’s a good look on you, Lance,” Shiro said as Lance and Coran walked into the room. 

“Thanks,” Lance smiled, he turned to Hunk for confirmation though. While Coran had reassured him earlier, he was nervous about what the others would think. 

“You look great buddy,” Hunk said, smiling softly at Lance. 

“You actually look kind of impressive in that,” Pidge said, glancing over her glasses at Lance. 

“Thanks guys,” Lance said, smiling.

“It’s fitting,” Allura told him, beaming. 

Lance’s smile grew. 

“We should head down to Helia now,” Shiro reminded them.

“How are we going to get there?” Keith asked. “Are we landing the castle, or taking the lions?”

“We’ll be taking the lions down,” Allura announced. “Coran will stay behind on the castle in case of an emergency.”

Lance’s heart sank and he glanced over to Coran. If Coran wasn’t going, maybe Lance shouldn’t either. 

“Go have fun! All of you deserve it!” Coran told them. 

“You can ride with me Lance,” Allura told him. 

“Thanks,” Lance told Allura, and they all set off for the hangars.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

As they landed on Helia, Lance fidgeted nervously for a second before following Allura as she strode out of the Blue Lion. As the others gathered in the center of the Lions,a person who Lance assumed must be one of the Helians walked towards them. The person appeared to have fur instead of hair, reminding Lance of a lion’s mane, and they were bright red all over, with the exception of some dark black markings, reminiscent of a poison dart frog. 

“Greetings,” they said. “I am Eyudar, the advisor to the king and ambassador of Helia.” 

“It is an honor to meet you,” Allura said, stepping forward. “I am Princess Allura of Altea, and the temporary Blue Paladin. These are my Paladins,” she said, gesturing to the group and stepping back so they could introduce themselves.

Shiro stepped forward and grasped Eyudar’s hand, giving them a firm handshake. “My name is Takashi Shirogane, but just Shiro is fine. I’m the Black Paladin. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”  He bowed slightly as he stepped back into line with the other Paladins. 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Keith, the Red Paladin,” Keith stepped forward with a slight wave before falling back in place.

“I’m Pidge! I’m the Paladin of the Green Lion!,” Pidge stepped forward and offered her hand to Eyudar, who took it in a loose handshake. Pidge smiled and took her place beside Hunk.

“Hi! I’m Hunk,” Hunk stepped forward, waving slightly before extending his hand. “I pilot the Yellow Lion.” Once Eyudar had shaken hands with Hunk, he stood next to Lance, who hesitated. Lance really didn’t think that Eyudar cared who he was. Hunk placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, nudging him forward.

“My name’s Lance,” he spoke up nervously. “I usually pilot the Blue Lion, but umm… I can’t really do that right now,” he admitted, not quite looking Eyudar in the eye.

“He did an admirable job of guiding us through that battle, taking over what is normally my role for me,” Allura interjected.

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Eyudar nodded at Lance in acknowledgement, and Lance gave a small bow without his usual flourish before taking his place beside Hunk.  “I am sure that King Taulir will be honored to meet all of you. Come, follow me.”

Lance stayed at the back of the group as they followed Eyudar to the castle, where the party was going to be. “You okay there buddy?” Hunk whispered, sticking close to Lance.

“Yeah… yeah, I’m fine” Lance assured him. “It’s just… weird, y’know? I’ve never been to a celebration like this without being a part of the battle… It almost feels like I’m faking it by being here.” 

“You deserve to be here just as much as the rest of us,” Hunk told him. “Your advice saved Allura more than once. And besides, without you, none of us would’ve even been here to fight this battle. You’re the reason we have Voltron right now Lance, don’t ever forget that.”

“Thanks Hunk,” Lance gave a wry smile. He wasn’t quite convinced that he should be there still, but he didn’t want to disappoint Hunk either. 

“No problem Lance,” Hunk said, grinning at Lance before speeding up to catch up with Pidge, probably to talk about the alien tech the planet must have. Lance sighed and let the smile drop. Everybody else was in front of him now, so he could drop the act for a bit. No matter what the others said, he should’ve stayed on the castleship. When Allura came with them to things like this, it made sense. She was a princess after all, her title alone deserved respect. But Lance was just a pilot, he wasn’t anything special. And despite what Hunk said about Lance having helped in the battle, he was well aware that some of the hits Allura had taken were his fault. And now he was going to have to sit through the party for vargas on end and either accept compliments he didn’t feel he deserved or watch from the sidelines as everyone ignored him while the true heroes of the day were praised. He felt like he was starting to understand why Coran didn’t usually come to parties with the rest of them. 

“Before we enter the ballroom, I will introduce you to the king in private, and you will all enter the ballroom together,” Eyudar explained as they neared their destination. Lance nodded in acknowledgment along with the other paladins, and Eyudar turned and opened the door to a large throne room. In the center sat King Taulir, a large man with the same furry hair as Eyudar, though he was a vibrant shade of green, and his black markings were in a different pattern than Eyudar’s.

Lance fidgeted as Eyudar introduced the others, though he tried his best not to make it obvious. Hunk was shooting him glances here and there, but thankfully nobody else seemed to notice. 

“And this is Lance,” Eyudar said causing Lance’s head to snap up. “He is the true Paladin of the Blue Lion, but for undisclosed reasons, he was unable to participate in today’s battle, though I’ve been informed he played an integral role in their success by providing guidance throughout the battle.” Lance couldn’t believe it. Eyudar’s praise seemed to be genuine. 

“It is an honor to meet all of you,” King Taulir spoke. “Now, allow me to escort you to the ballroom. I hope you will all be pleased with the festivities we have put together in your honor.”

“I am certain that we will be,” Allura replied, as King Taulir stood and led them out of the room.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, no new epilepsy facts this time, but please remember to check out either www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org to learn more about epilepsy if you're interested.


	15. Life of the Party

**Chapter 15**

Lance stared in awe as they entered the ballroom. It looked like something out of  _ Anastasia _ . Everything was bathed in a soft golden glow, and everyone was doing  _ something. _ Some people were on the dance floor, others were ribbon dancing, Lance even noticed a few people on a tightrope, and a trapeze artist. King Taulir and Eyudar seemed not to notice any of this though. Instead, they guided the Paladins to a long table at the head of the room where they could observe all of the festivities easily. King Taulir stood and clinked his glass with his fork, causing everyone to stop what they were doing, and those in the air flipped down to the ground and looked towards him. 

“I would like to introduce tonight’s honored guests,” King Taulir spoke. “It is my pleasure to introduce Team Voltron, all of whom played an integral part in ensuring our safety today.” Lance stood at attention as everyone was introduced, and when he was introduced, he flushed red and bowed as the room burst into applause. He took his seat and allowed himself to become absorbed in the entertainment before him as Hunk sat next to him. 

“This is amazing,” Lance whispered to Hunk, who nodded in agreement, smiling at the wonder on his friend’s face. 

“Excuse me, Sir Paladin,” someone approached Lance. He looked over and saw what appeared to be a parent with their child. “We would just like to offer our sincerest thanks for what you did for us today, and my son has a gift for you, if you would accept it.” The boy offered up what Lance assumed was this planet’s equivalent of a teddy bear. 

“Thank you,” Lance replied, taking the stuffed animal gently. “Although I really didn’t do that much.” He leant down to the child and said in a stage whisper, “My friend Hunk here was much braver in my opinion. You should consider giving this to him instead,” he offered the child the toy back, but the boy shook his head stubbornly. 

“The King said you didn’t fight ‘cause you couldn’t but you helped anyway. Mr. Lokin makes me feel better when I’m sick or have a boo boo, you should keep him,” the boy insisted.

Lance drew the stuffed animal back and placed it gently on the table in front of him and smiled at the boy. “In that case, I’ll take good care of him,” he said, smiling at the boy. “And I’m sure he’ll take good care of me as well.”

The boy buried his face into his parent’s leg before grinning shyly up at Lance. 

“Don’t you have something else you’d like to ask him?” his parent prodded. The boy nodded, before pulling away from his parent and staring up at Lance determinedly. 

“Will you come dance with me?” The boy blurted out, and Lance grinned. 

“Of course, it would be my honor,” Lance said, standing and bowing to the boy playfully. The boy grinned, grabbing Lance’s hand and dragging him out to the dance floor. Lance was reminded of the times he danced with his nephew as he taught the boy some earth dances, twirling him around, and even allowing the boy to attempt a dip, and in turn being showed some of the dance moves of the Helian culture, which somehow the child managed to pull off with a grace Lance wasn’t sure he could pull off once, nevermind the amount of times the boy showed off. Nevertheless, Lance tried, eliciting giggles from the boy as Lance decided to exaggerate just how bad he was at this.

“You’re so much better than me at this!” Lance told the boy, fake pouting as he hopped on one foot exaggeratedly as if he was losing his balance. 

“You’re doin’ it wrong!” the boy giggled before showing Lance what he was supposed to be doing. Soon enough, a small crowd gathered around the two, all happy to help teach the Blue Paladin how to dance, and amused at his failure. 

“It’s supposed to be our job to entertain you, not the other way around,” one particularly amused elder said, approaching Lance through the crowd. 

“Yeah, well, I’m having a lot of fun, so I’d say you’re doing your job just fine,” Lance grinned. 

“I’m glad you are enjoying yourself,” the elder nodded. “Although I am afraid I will have to interrupt this dance, as we have a show we’d like to put on for you and your friends.” 

“I look forward to it,” Lance smiled as he returned to his seat and watched the elder gather who he assumed would be the actors in the show. He grinned as he noticed the boy he’d been dancing with bound over to the elder. Lance sat in awe throughout the performance, a musical that reminded him a bit of Les Mis plot wise, but with much more elaborate dance routines and production value. Ribbon dancing was involved in one number, flaming batons in another, and actual cannons were fired in a third. Each and every character death was heartrending, the actors executed the scenes beautifully, and Lance was torn between grinning and worrying when he realized the boy he’d been dancing with earlier had a fairly significant role. Thankfully, his character didn’t end up dying, though the character’s younger sister did, leaving Lance a sobbing mess anyway. Finally, the performers too their bows, and Lance stood up and applauded loudly along with the other spectators. The elder in charge of the performance approached their table after the play.

“Did you all enjoy the show?” the elder asked, with a mirthful glint in her eye. 

“That was incredible!” Lance gushed. “I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“It  _ was _ pretty cool,” Hunk agreed. “I have to ask, how did you guys get the cannons to go off like that without injuring anyone? That looked like a real cannonball being fired even!” 

“ _ That’s _ a trade secret, I’m afraid,” the elder told him, winking. “It would ruin the magic of the show if you knew.” 

“Fair enough,” Hunk laughed, while Pidge pouted, clearly having been eager to hear the answer too. The elder chuckled at Pidge’s face.

“It was wonderful!” Allura leaned in towards the elder, her eyes sparkling. “We’re honored that you would perform something so spectacular in our honor!” 

“It was nice,” Keith shrugged nonchalantly. 

“Don’t mind him,” Shiro laughed, shaking his head. “He acts like he’s not excited, but he cried at least 5 times, so he definitely thought it was good. I enjoyed it a lot as well.”

“I am glad that you all enjoyed it,” the elder beamed. “Our goal tonight is to make sure you all enjoy yourselves, so it’s good to know that we’re on the right track.”

“We appreciate it very much,” Allura assured her. “Thank you so much.”

“No, no need to thank us, this is our way of thanking you for all of your help,” the elder told her. “Now, I’m sure we could go back and forth like this all night, but I’m also sure you would rather spend your time enjoying mre of the festivities. I have heard that the Red Paladin quite enjoys using his blade?”

“Yeah…” Keith admitted hesitantly. “What about it?” 

“One of our usual forms of entertainment involves showing our guests the skills of our swordsmen. However, if you enjoy using your blade, it is perhaps a better use of time to allow to compete, rather than merely being a spectator.” 

Keith’s face lit up. “Sure! What do I have to do?!”

“Just follow me, I will bring you to the sparring area, and you will face off against one of our most skilled swordsmen.” 

“Sweet!” Keith stood immediately and followed the elder, while Shiro chuckled. 

“He never could turn down a fight,” Shiro said fondly.

“Yeah, we’ve noticed,” Pidge said sardonically, rolling her eyes. 

“Come on Pidge, you have to admit this’ll be fun to watch!’ Hunk said, nudging her with his elbow. Lance laughed fndly at his friends, and he caught of glimpse of Allura smiling fondly as well out of the corner of his eye.  

Lance looked out across the room at the sparring area, and grinned, bouncing on his toes as he watched Keith get ready for his fight. This was going to be beyond cool to watch. Before he noticed it, Allura had come to stand beside him. 

“You seem to be having a good time,” Allura smiled softly.  

“Yeah, I am,” Lance nodded, still grinning. 

“I’m glad. I was worried that this may worsen your mood rather than improve it,” Allura admitted. 

“I’m gonna be honest, I thought for sure it would,” Lance told her as he leaned forward to get a better look at Keith’s fight. “But tonight’s been a lot of fun. I’m glad I came.” 

“I’m glad you came too,” Allura told him. “We all would have missed your presence dearly if you hadn’t.” 

“Thanks Allura,” Lance smiled softly. 

“You know… the Paladins of Old were all family to me,” Allura told Lance as they watched Keith lunge at his opponent and then swiftly dodge their counterattack. “And you somehow remind me of almost all of them at once. Mostly Blaytz, you two carry yourselves and act very similarly. However you care about the team more than yourself, in a way that reminds me very strongly of my father, you have the caring nature of Gyrgan, you’ve shown that over and over again in the way you support each of us, and in the battle today, you showed some of the strategic mind of Trigel”.

“Allura…” Lance started, but was interrupted.

“Out of all of the Paladins, you are the one I most associate with the title. It was strange not having you out there today. I’m sure it was even stranger for the others,” Alura continued.

“Yeah, I bet Hunk found it really weird,” Lance mused. “We’ve been a team since we started at the Garrison. I know it was weird for me to not be out there fighting with him.” 

They watched as Keith tried to take down his opponent, an amicable silence falling between them. Soon enough, Pidge came up on Lance’s other side, bumping into him lightly. 

“Stop looking so serious,” Pidge told him. “It doesn’t suit you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance laughed, ruffling Pidge’s hair as she jerked away and pouted. “I wasn’t even being that serious, just keeping an eye on mullet out there, making sure he doesn’t lose and make us laughingstocks.”

“Imagine the dishonor if he lost,” Pidge joked. “Dishonor on him, dishonor on Voltron, dishonor on Kaltenecker! I don’t think I’d be able to take it!”

Lance laughed. “Was that a Mulan reference?” he asked. “Seriously? Now?!”

“It’s never a bad time for a Mulan reference,” Pidge shrugged. Allura glanced over curiously.

“What is this Mulan you’re talking about?” Allura asked. 

“It’s an old earth movie about a brave warrior who saves her country with her sword,” Pidge explained, shrugging. “It’s a classic though.”

“You will have to show me sometime,” Allura smiled at the two of them. 

“I don’t have it with me,” Pidge said apologetically.

“When the war’s over,” Lance said. “You and Coran can come spend time on earth with us. You don’t have to stay on earth on if you don’t want to, but visits are a must. After all,” Lance said, turning to Allura and grinning, “You guys are family now.”

“I look forward to it,” Allura smiled before turning her gaze back to the arena, just in time to see Keith defeat his opponent.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new epilepsy "fun facts" this time. As always, please check out www.epilepsy.com or www.talkaboutit.org for more information on epilepsy.

**Author's Note:**

> There will be more of this, I already have chapter 2 started, but updates will be sporadic. My goal is to hopefully follow Lance through the entirety of Voltron, but we'll see how that works out, as writing this from Lance's POV has presented more problems than I anticipated. 
> 
> Until next chapter, I figured I should explain a little bit of terminology that hasn't been described yet but has been mentioned.  
> Aura: A sensation that oftentimes prewarns of a seizure. In my experience, it is possible, and even somewhat common, for an aura to happen without a seizure occurring.  
> EEG: Short for electroencephalogram. They stick a bunch of electrodes on your head and measure your brainwaves and look for seizure-like activity in the presence of possible triggers
> 
> Also, a clarification on the whole medication thing: I do NOT know how accurate Lance's statement that he'd be fine in a day or two after not having taken his medication for a while would actually be. I do NOT recommend messing with your medication without doctor approval. My only personal experience with this is when I was attempting to come off of my medication, and while I was fine almost immediately, I am also a female whose seizures are closely tied with her menstrual cycle, which is clearly not the case for Lance in this fic. Do NOT take anything in this fic as a "one size fits all" medical guide to epilepsy. If you want to learn more about epilepsy, check out the Epilepsy Foundation website : http://www.epilepsy.com/


End file.
